Writing State Of The Union Speech: A Juggling Act.

President Obama delivers his State of the Union
address Jan. 27, 2010. For White House
speechwriters, the address is one of the more
complicated speeches they must write.
For a White House speechwriter, there is a
conflict in the State of the Union address. It's the
speech that gets all the attention, where the
president lays out his legislative agenda for the
year ahead. But as far as poetry, arc and theme, it
can also be the clunkiest.
"They can be an absolute legislative laundry list,"
says Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter for President
George H.W. Bush. "And that doesn't make it
very fun to write.
"On one hand, it's nice to have the glory of
saying, 'Well, I wrote the State of the Union
address,' " she says. "But really, you'd rather
want to be known for writing the inaugural
address. That's where the poetry is, and the State
of the Union is a bit of a slog, I think."
A Management Challenge
Most presidential speeches take shape vertically —
that is, one speechwriter is in charge. He or she
sends it up the White House ladder until it reaches
the president.
But the State of the Union takes shape
horizontally. Every department and agency
submits its plans for the coming year. And
everyone has an opinion about what the speech
should say, which can be a management
challenge, says former George W. Bush
speechwriter John McConnell.
"You get a lot of suggestions from throughout
the administration of things that need to go in the
speech," McConnell says. "You get suggested
language at times from people, and you have to
give everything fair consideration."
The planning takes months and starts before
Christmas.
This year, people familiar with the process say
White House speechwriters were working on a
draft on Saturday, Jan. 8. That day, a gunman
opened fire in Arizona, shooting Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords through the head and killing several
others.
For the team writing the State of the Union, the
attack meant the mood of the speech had to
change. During marathon revision sessions, they
struggled over how to appropriately reflect the
moment that the country is in, both after Tucson
and after two years of economic struggles.
'A Leader For The Whole Country'
Former Clinton speechwriter Jeff Shesol says
Tuesday's address can't just be a sequel to the
eulogy that Obama delivered in Arizona.
"An event like Tucson will certainly have an
effect," Shesol says. "That said, it's been clear
already that he's going to talk about the deficit,
he's going to talk about spending cuts, he's very
likely going to talk about tax reform. Those things
were already going to be in the speech, and they
will still be in the speech irrespective of what
happened in Tucson."
Still, the attacks will be a big part of this speech.
People from Tucson will almost certainly sit with
the first lady in the House Gallery.
And former Clinton speechwriter Michael
Waldman says the president would be foolish not
to use this moment to build on the political gains
from the Tucson speech.
Speaking After Tragegy
Obama is hardly the first president to deliver his
State of the Union address after a national
tragedy. Here's a look at memorable lines from
recent presidents who used the address not only
to push their agenda but also comfort the nation.
Ronald Reagan had to delay his State of the
Union address in 1986 so that the country could
honor the seven astronauts who died in the
Challenger space shuttle explosion, which
occurred the day he was originally scheduled to
give his speech. When he took to the podium in
February, he laid out his plan to continue
pursuing space exploration — while also pushing
his tax reform agenda.
"We paused together to mourn and honor the
valor of our seven Challenger heroes. And I hope
that we are now ready to do what they would
want us to do: Go forward, America, and reach
for the stars. We will never forget those brave
seven, but we shall go forward."
When George W. Bush addressed the nation in
2002, he had to console a nation still grieving
over the Sept. 11 attacks and discuss very serious
issues — terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction.
"We last met in an hour of shock and suffering.
In four short months, our nation has comforted
the victims, begun to rebuild New York and the
Pentagon ... captured, arrested and rid the world
of thousands of terrorists ... and freed a country
from brutal oppression."
— Chelsea Keenan
"President Obama will want to use a speech like
this to reassert his standing, not as a divisive
partisan figure but as a leader for the whole
country," Waldman says. "He really began to do
that with the success in the lame-duck session of
Congress and with the powerful and very widely
praised eulogy in Tucson, but this speech is the
next chance to do that."
Working With Both Parties
And the need for someone who can work with
both parties is stronger now than ever.
Behind Obama, Republican House Speaker John
Boehner will be sitting in the chair that Democrat
Nancy Pelosi occupied last year.
So one option is for Obama to strike a
conciliatory tone with Republicans. But McConnell
says there's another option.
"I think back to President Bush in 2007, when he
was facing a new majority and his back was
against the wall, in a sense, because he was
trying to push the troop surge in Iraq, and the
support for that was very thin in the Congress,"
he says. "And he went in there in the State of the
Union, and he gave a very powerful message
and had them on their feet."
And that year, even though Democrats controlled
Congress, the troop surge happened.
Source: Http://www.npr.org/2011/01/23/133087065/writing-state-of-the-union-speech-a-juggling-act