Obama presidency will be good for (good) communicators

I get invited to speak on speechwriting every year in Denmark, where everybody's trying to learn how to write speeches. Why? Because, according to my perennial hosts, President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair showed the Danish government ministers how powerful communication can be, and now the government ministers all want speechwriters!

President Obama, whatever he achieves in office, has already shown that words are power—and he's got four more years to keep showing it, internationally and at home.

This can only be a good thing for professional communicators, whose pleasure in work waxes and wanes on their leaders' weighing of risk versus reward in clear, bold, imaginative communication.

Obama shows (and shows): Words work, and better words work better.

Comments

[Joan H.]

Michael Sebastian had emailed me, asking if I'd provide my own impression of the acceptance and concession speeches for an article he was writing, needing my response by 9 a.m. It didn't occur to me that he meant 9 in Chicago, though it should have, and so I sent my email too late for his deadline. But maybe it'd be appropriate for this morning's blog, Michael.

The concession speech came before 7 p.m. Alaska time, and the acceptance speech hit around 7:15. Polls close in Alaska at 8 p.m., and we had some hotly contested races here, especially our U.S. Senate and U.S. House races, so that was discouraging, to be hearing those speeches before many had even entered the voting booth. I was listening to both speeches as we drove home from work last night, so I couldn’t see faces, I could only hear words.

I was listening to Senator McCain, thinking how gracious he was being, and as he spoke was reminded of his long service to our country. I felt encouraged, and impressed by his commitment to support his new president. And as I was thinking all of this, my husband said, “What a weenie. Every time he talks I like him less.” And my husband was a strong supporter of McCain—or perhaps I should say, he strongly opposed Obama.

And then, about a half hour later Senator Obama spoke. At the beginning of his speech, my impression was that this was about as uninspiring as it could get, mouthing the same platitudes that every candidate does, and had a sinking feeling about the years to come. Until he began speaking of the centenarian voter in Georgia, and describing all that she had seen in the course of her life. As he told that story, he seemed transformed himself. He seemed to gain inspiration himself, building passion and vision as he moved through that story. I felt moved and encouraged. And then he ended it with—a puppy? Is that what he said? A puppy? WTF?

And so I’m left wondering what, indeed, makes a good speech. John McCain left me feeling encouraged and my husband disgusted. Obama started a cliché, built to an inspirational pitch, and ended with—I have no idea what he ended with. Maybe he misread.

And Governor Palin will be coming home. I wonder how that will be.

[Eileen]

Hey David...who writes O'Bama's speeches? Does he help with the writing process?

[David Murray]

Jon Favreau writes 'em; he's 26. And yeah, Obama has a strong hand in the writing. Here's the process as described in Newsweek a while ago, starting with a tale about the job interview:

"What is your theory of speechwriting?" Obama asked.

"I have no theory," admitted Favreau. "But when I saw you at the convention, you basically told a story about your life from beginning to end, and it was a story that fit with the larger American narrative. People applauded not because you wrote an applause line but because you touched something in the party and the country that people had not touched before. Democrats haven't had that in a long time."

The pitch worked. Favreau and Obama rapidly found a relatively direct way to work with each other. "What I do is to sit with him for half an hour," Favreau explains. "He talks and I type everything he says. I reshape it, I write. He writes, he reshapes it. That's how we get a
finished product.

"It's a great way to write speeches. A lot of times, you write something, you hand it in, it gets hacked by advisers, it gets to the candidate and then it gets sent back to you. This is a much more intimate way to work."

Some speeches are much more the product of the candidate himself. Obama e-mailed Favreau his draft of his announcement speech in Springfield, Ill., at 4 a.m. on the morning of the campaign launch last February.

Now Favreau has his own team: Adam Frankel, a 26-year-old who worked with Ted Sorensen on his memoirs, and Ben Rhodes, a 30-year-old who worked with Lee Hamilton on the 9/11 commission's report.

[Kristen]

Go figure! To echo Joan - what indeed makes a good speech? I watched Obama's speech and was so moved, inspired and emotional as a result, that I just HAD to write about it, which I did in a Facebook note (I'll spare your readers the details, David!).

Although I found almost all of the speech inspiring, what really got me revved up about Obama's speech was that it was real and honest about what we're facing, while still being upbeat and positive about the opportunities.

And, even more exciting, he actually said the words "duty", "responsibility" and, (gasp!) "sacrifice"!! Wow! What a concept - you mean it isn't all about "me"?!

I suppose it probably helps that my positions and beliefs are similar to Obama's as to why I was affected by his speech, but I really don't think that totally explains it. I guess for me a good speech is on that makes me:

-Feel
-Think
-Want to act

Your new President-elect's speech last night hit all three of those for me - and I live in another country!

[Mike]

I agree with Joan that McCain's speech was graceful and perhaps even noble. I let my 10-yr-old stay up past 11 p.m. to watch that, because I think the concession speech--which is really rather formulaic--is the pinnacle of American democratic achievement. That is where we are at our best and McCain's speech recognized the need to transcend and did so masterfully. I found myself thinking that if McCain had spoken and acted this way during the campaign it would have been a much tighter race.

I am sorry Joan could not have watched Obama deliver his speech, because the overpowering visual was solemnity--even almost sadness. Was it exhaustion? His grandmother's untimely death? Recognition of the tremendous expectations he must now try to fulfill? The weight of the world's problems now on his shoulders? I don't know, but it was about as far from a gloat as you could imagine. The instant pundits on my channel reacted immediately -- "Oh, it was too long" -- but the more they talked about it, the more obvious it became that Obama had placed himself in history at an epochal moment of struggle. In a speech that is usually expected to say nothing more than thank you and on to a brighter tomorrow, he somehow forced listeners to recognize the scope of the challenge ahead. It may not have been brilliant oratory, but it shone with purpose.

One interesting note to me: Peggy Noonan in her book about writing speeches for Reagan (What I Saw at the Revolution) talks about how they deliberately eschewed the old Kennedy formulation of "Let us..."

That construct seems to be back with President Obama. But he can carry it off (whereas our former Mayor now Governor Martin O'Malley here in Maryland does it and somehow always sounds like he is trying to be Jack Kennedy--and failing).

Mike