Watching last night, I couldn’t help but think about the speechwriter(s).
They sat at a keyboard much like yours or mine. Was it written on a Mac? A PC? A notebook or desktop?
Did (s)he listen to music? What? Did they wake up at 2 in the morning to write a particularly inspiried section? Which section?
What didn’t make the cut? What piece did the writier love that some meathead with no grasp of the written word made them lose?
If you simply roll your eyes at all this, may I suggest, then, Peter Robinson’s How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. “Mr. Gorbachev: Tear Down That Wall!” Yeah, Robinson write that.
Watching last night, I groused that someone wrote that while I’m writing little ads. I wished I, too, could write something “important.”
“What you write is just as important for our family as what that writer wrote for him,” said my wife.
If you didn’t know already, she’s way smarter than me. I’d vote for her.
You have a very smart wife Tim.
During the speech, and during the commentary, it was amazing to compare and contrast the election of JFK and the words used in the two nominations.
I’d vote for her too.
I always thought Richard Schiff played the role of the tortured speechwriter very well in The West Wing.
Having known a couple of political speechwriters pretty well, I know what an art it is. And how they wince when their guy goes "off the prompter."