President Obama has been known for having young speechwriters who sometimes get carried away with the rhetoric.
Who can forget Obama’s 2008 Democratic nomination acceptance speech:
Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.
https://twitter.com/davidjacksmith/status/487276951791751168
This year, 33-year-old Cody Keenan will be penning the State of the Union address.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Cody Keenan, 33, a principal speechwriter for the president writing the State of the Union, compared the work to graduate school. “You get a paper assignment, you might pull an all-nighter or come in really early to finish, and you hand it in and then you get his marks back and find out whether he likes it or not,” Keenan said. “The good thing is he’ll make detailed edits when he gets the speech, and he’s generous with his time. He’ll walk us through the edits and explain why he made them.”
The White House tweeted a photo of Keenan working with the president on the address:
Instagram of President Obama working w Cody Keenan on his State of the Union speech in the residence of the WH today pic.twitter.com/rU56WZxIyA
— petesouza (archived) (@PeteSouza44) January 18, 2015
According to former Obama speechwriter Adam Frankel, the president has high standards.
“He is a gifted writer, and he also has respect for the writing process and understands what that process is like. He is very involved in the writing process from the very beginning.”
But will Keenan live up to the “rise-of-the-oceans-began-to-slow” standard? We’ll know Tuesday night.
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