Presidential Speechwriting: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution and Beyond (review)

In the midsummer of 2003 George W. Bush learned, painfully and with significant political cost, the vital importance of presidential speechwriting. As Democrats and journalists collectively salivated and as the president's job approval rating edged downward, Bush found the exact wording of his 2003 State of the Union address inspected, dissected, and investigated. Sixteen words about Iraq and uranium purchases in Africa (and scores of other words about aluminum tubes, weapons of mass destruction, Al-Qaeda) brought to the fore critical questions of how presidential speechwriting happens, how the process in the Bush White House failed, and who bore the fundamental responsibility for the error. One of the Democratic candidates for president (Florida's Bob Graham) even suggested that, if held to the same standards as Bill Clinton, Bush's manipulation of facts and truth in his State of the Union address might well be impeachable.

Bush's speechwriters would do well to consult Presidential Speechwriting because from it they would learn much about how previous presidents successfully and unsuccessfully managed speechwriting. Editors Kurt Ritter and Martin J. Medhurst have assembled a collection of essays that nicely trace the contemporary history of presidential speechwriting, covering the presidencies of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Drawn from Texas A&M University's second annual conference on presidential rhetoric, held in 1996, this collection provides a fascinating, though at times uneven, glimpse into the mechanics of presidential speechwriting, spanning over a half-century of American history.

Presidential Speechwriting is really two books in one: some of the book's essays are dense, archivally driven, historical analyses of the speechwriting process in various administrations, while other essays offer an "insider's" view of the speechwriting process from scholars who have also served as political speechwriters. Among the historical essays are Halford Ryan's examination of FDR's speechwriting, Diana Carlin's study of Harry Truman's campaign and congressional speechmaking, Charles J. G. Griffin's analysis of Eisenhower's 1954 State of the Union, Moya Ann Ball's exploration of LBJ's 1968 renunciation speech, and John Patton's critique of Jimmy Carter's speechwriting. The "insider" accounts are offered by Theodore O. Windt's study of the Kennedy-Sorensen relationship, Craig R. Smith's insights from his time as a speechwriter for Gerald Ford, and William K. Muir's chapter on the "rhetoric of values" in the Reagan White House. Presidential Speechwriting's chapters are bookended by Martin Medhurst's insightful discussions of the contemporary state of presidential speechwriting.

Most satisfying are those chapters that take the reader through a detailed exploration of how presidential speechwriting operates by examining a specific speech text and poring over the archival material relevant to that text. In his careful discussion of Ike's 1954 State of the Union, for instance, Griffin mines the Eisenhower Library's archives to provide fascinating insights about how speechwriting worked in that White House, and what role the president played in the process. Because of his persuasive analysis, Griffin successfully reveals how Eisenhower's speechwriting process manifested "flexible staffing, presidential involvement, and deliberate integration of speechwriting and policy making" (85).

Similarly, Moya Ball's discussion of LBJ's speechwriting demonstrates the interplay between historical context, public response, and private deliberation in the speechwriting process. Her highly informed and thoroughly researched chapter indicates the "mosaic of external and internal constraints" (111) that were operating on Johnson, allowing her to persuasively conclude that "speechwriters are mediators between the private and public realms, even as speechwriting must mediate between thinking and speaking, and rhetoric seeks to mediate between past, present, and future" (128). Ball's blending of careful analysis, very rich archival sourcing, and a complete understanding of the relevant scholarly literature on LBJ yields a masterful discussion of a compelling rhetorical moment in contemporary American history.

Not all of the...