Does Obama write his own speeches?

[Kalhoun]

I know most presidents (and candidates) have speech writers. I can tell you that the Pinhead In Chief has probably never written a single sentence in any of the speeches he’s given in these last 8 years.

But Obama sure as hell sounds like Obama in his speeches. I’m just curious…how much is him and how much is a professional speech writer?

(Not sure if this is a debate or not…feel free to cart it off to a better spot if need be.)

[Liberal]

His main speechwriter is Jon Favreau (no not that one). But he does write an awful lot of his own content.

[DMark]

I have no cite, but from what I have read, whenever his staff talks about his speeches they always imply that he writes them himself. They often mention that he will sit up late at night, alone, preparing them.

Whether or not he has a team of fact checkers, or perhaps a list of topics created by his staff that they feel he should include in the speech - I don’t know.

But I would agree that his speeches always sound like he himself wrote them in his own words, even if the source material might have been gathered by others.

[LilShieste]

I’m sure he makes use of a professional speech writer (or writers) a lot of times, but the concept of writing his own speeches certainly isn’t a foreign concept to him.

From here:

Obama dictated a first draft to his young speechwriter Jon Favreau on Saturday, then reworked the speech until 3 a.m. Monday. He went at it anew on Tuesday, tweaking away until 2 a.m. Did Obama’s political aides try to warn him off the idea? “It wasn’t even a discussion,” says Axelrod. “He was going to do it. I know this sounds perhaps corny, but he actually believes in the fairness and good sense of the American people, and the importance of this issue. His candidacy is predicated on the fact that we can talk to each other in an honest and forthright way on this and other issues.”

[Whack-a-Mole]

Mostly he seems to compose the speeches himself. Of course (as noted above) he has speech writers and consultants who he passes the speeches by for editing and comment and together they rework it.

For his speech to the DNC in 2004 there is this:

Obama composed the first draft in longhand on a yellow legal pad, mostly in Springfield, where the state senate was in overtime over a budget impasse. Wary of missing important votes, Obama stayed close to the Capitol, which wasn’t exactly conducive to writing. “There were times that he would go into the men’s room at the Capitol because he wanted some quiet,” says Axelrod. Once, state senator Jeff Schoenberg walked into the men’s lounge and found Obama sitting on a stool along the marble countertop near the sinks, reworking the speech. “It was a classic Life magazine moment,” says Schoenberg, who snapped a picture of Obama with his cell-phone camera.

Obama scribbled down ideas on scraps of paper whenever inspiration struck. He also read transcripts and watched reels of film highlighting past keynote speeches that Gibbs, his communications director, had put together for him. David Katz, a former Obama campaign aide, says Obama spent a couple of weeks working late at night a few hours at a time. “We’d finish [the senate day] at 9 or 10 p.m., and he’d write till 1 or 2 in the morning,” recalls Katz. Axelrod says Obama “does a lot of composing in his head, so by the time he sits down to write, it’s a matter of transcribing his thoughts to the written page.”

SOURCE: Chicago Magazine

[Flipshod]

His speeches sound like what would come from an astute constitutional law professor who also happened to have spent time listening to firebrand sermons in the manner of Rev. Wright. (Which is a good thing.)

That’s my debate point here.

[stolichnaya]

He certainly does not have time to write all of these speeches. But I’ll believe that he reworks them for his voice, and takes a heavy writing hand with the important ones. He’s conscious of style and I have definitely read about him saying to his speechwriters; “I don’t talk like that”. I can’t find a cite at the moment.

There is this fluffy piece focused on Favreau which contains this gem, not only funny but a sign of the well-developed cultural brain of a young man who can write for an older man to speak to some who are even older than him:

“You’re like Ted Williams’s batting coach,” Mr. Favreau said.

[jaydotbeedot]

I write speeches professionally, and it’s certainly possible to develop a feel for a speaker’s cadence, vocabulary, etc. However, you have to be pretty good, and you need to gain experience with a particular speaker over time.

Speechwriting, like scriptwriting, takes a particular knack or “ear” that you simply have or you don’t. You can certainly improve your abilities, but if you don’t have the basic ability then it’s unlikely you’ll ever become really good at it.