WASHINGTON, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Throughout his
presidency, Barack Obama — an eloquent and talented orator with undeniable charisma — has taken particular care in the writing of his speeches, several of which have marked milestones in his White House tenure.
“Some of the craft of writing a good speech is identical to any other
good writing,” he told The New York Times in an interview published Monday.
“Is that word necessary? Is it the right word? Is there a rhythm to
it that feels good? How does it sound aloud?”
For Obama’s chief speechwriter Cody Keenan, each address is “a way to
tell a story,” and the balancing act each time is to offer a vision on an issue without getting trapped by the “very real danger of being out of touch.”
“There were arguments internally in the early years of the
administration about how optimistic and forward looking you could get in economic speeches when unemployment is still at like 8 or 9 percent,” Keenan told AFP.
Obama, a former lecturer in constitutional law at the University of
Chicago, is very involved in drafting his speeches.
“We will usually sit down with him in the Oval Office and he will
just talk and we will type it out and that gives us something to go work with,” Keenan said.
“We’ll spend a couple of days, write a draft, give it to him. If he
doesn’t like it, he will take out a yellow legal pad and write his thoughts and if he does, he will start outlining the whole thing,” he said.
It usually takes three or four drafts to arrive at a final product…
which are often tweaked at the last minute anyway.
Here’s a look at five key speeches in the career of the 44th
president of the United States.