Calling All White House Speechwriters
After asking me to appear for a few minutes on Monday morning to discuss the State of the Union address, Fox News sent me a few questions. Below, my answers.
Bill McGurn? Troy Senik? You've both worked on State of the Union addresses more recently than I have. What would you add?
What goes into crafting a State of the Union speech?
The State of the Union address is the one speech each year that involves the entire administration—not just the president and his speechwriters, but the secretaries at each Cabinet department and the directors of the major agencies, all of whom submit material that they’re all but desperate to have included. Once the speechwriters receive this material, they begin paring it down and searching for a few themes that will provide it with some sense of unity or coherence. This is miserable work.
How do you reach a careful balance of emotion, compromise, and convey the agenda?
First the speechwriters cut, throwing out most of the material they receive from the departments and agencies. Then they produce a first draft and begin revising it with the president and senior staff. At some point—usually a week or so before the address--the speechwriters will have produced a tight, coherent speech. They spend all the remaining time in a heroic attempt to rebuff additions, water down vivid passages, and make the speech yet another in the long, sorry tradition of State of the Union addresses as laundry lists. They always fail.
What is Peter’s advice for what Pres. Obama should include in his speech?
I’d love to see him admit that during his first two years in office he was fundamentally mistaken. He naively believed, I would have him explain, that the federal government could somehow force the private sector to create jobs, expanding the economy. Now he knows better, recognizing that rapid economic growth will take place only if the government cuts taxes, reduces regulations, and gets out of the way.
I’m not holding my breath.
What will make it memorable?
Honestly? Probably nothing. State of the Union addresses have their role to play in American politics, advancing the president’s agenda. But I can’t think of a State of the Union address that has proven really memorable.
Obama’s best shot at it? He could be gracious and self-effacing. And he could tell one or two jokes, adopting Reagan’s practice of beginning each speech by cheering people up. Obama has proven so cool and aloof that a deft, self-deprecating use of humor would stay in people’s minds—and give the press something to talk about besides boring policy proposals.
Don’t attack Supreme Court justices. Put people at ease. Act like a fallible human. That’d be my advice.
P.S. Be sure to listen to our special edition "White House Writer's Room" podcast in which Bill McGurn and Troy Senik join me to discuss the State of the Union address.
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Comments :
Dec '10
Re: Calling All White House Speechwriters
I think you worded this a bit strangely. It makes it sound like speechwriter heroism includes the heroic struggle to water down vivid passages and the heroic labor to make the speech yet another in the long, sorry tradition of State of the Union addresses as laundry lists.
I am sure you mean that in addition to rebuffing additions, your efforts are meant to oppose watering down of vivid passages and prevent making the speech yet another laundry list.
Edited on Jan 24, 2011 at 7:25amOct '10
Re: Calling All White House Speechwriters
Peter--what about the role of lobbyists getting their pet issues a "shout out" by the President? I loathe the SOTU speeches due to the laundry list of government goodies.
Re: Calling All White House Speechwriters
Peter, I enjoyed your terrific interview on FOX while munching a spinach salad in my kitchen. Well done! I especially appreciate your advice: "Don't attack Supreme Court justices." I wasn't a speechwriter but was just a lowly staffer in Correspondence and then in Public Liaison during the Reagan era. (You guys were the rock stars of the EOB in my recollections!)... But I do recall being tasked with finding noteworthy, personal letters to the president that might be useful, and later while in PL, circulating the draft SOTU document among special assistants. The process inside the White House is so interesting. You realize that statesmanship -- which ought to be the goal -- is nearly always compromised by partisanship. Never mind maintaining the president's authentic voice or allowing the theme to inspire the nation -- gotta make sure the Dept. of Agriculture gets a shout out! Your FOX interview helped shed light on the tension in crafting a SOTU. BTW, Llst year, he never said, "The state of our union is..." (fill in the blank). Maybe because it was so stinky, who knows? But that's the line that must, in my opinion, be included.
Re: Calling All White House Speechwriters
I hated State of the Unions. Every chief speechwriter says, this year we won't have a laundry list. And every year the rest of the entire Administration ensures that it is a laundry list.
The SOTU is less a state of the union these days than the opening salvo for the president's agenda for the next year. That's the policy side. On the pr side, it is a chance for the man in the Oval Office truly to look presidential and gracious. Methinks President OBama did not quite appreciate that last year when he took a swipe at the Supreme Court whose members were sitting before them (by contrast, look at the language GWB used to talk about Nancy Pelosi during her first SOTU as Speaker -- language I didn't write, so I can praise). And now, like most acts of ungraciousness, it may be coming back to bite President Obama with the Chief Justice possibly not attending this year's address.