Gore's speech writers

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 1:02 AM 6/10/96, Joseph M. Reagle Jr. wrote:
>        Sounds good but I had to laugh when I heard it... is he at odds with
>other members of the administration, or is this rhetoric?
>
[Gore speech elided]

You want a serious answer?

"Speech writers."

Guys at the level of Gore rarely compose their own thoughts. They depend
almost wholly on speech writers. William Safire, Patrick Buchanan, etc. (I
don't follow Clinton and Gore, so I don't know who their speech writers
are.)

I read an interesting op-ed piece about how wonderful Bob Dole's
resignation-from-the-Senate speech was, about how resonant and thoughtful
it was. But the piece went on to point out that the speech was
"un-Dole-like." Turns out it was written by Mark Helprin, a former WSJ
writer and current novelist. Dole is just a typical politician.

Gore is also just a typical politician. To an MIT or CMU crowd he'll give a
speech about the importance of free speech. To a San Francisco crowd he'll
give a speech about the need to create methods of self-policing of hate
speech and limits on speech critical of gays. To a graduating class at "The
Farm" he'll give a speech about the reasons the CIA and NSA must wiretap
all communications. To his St. Alban's 30th Reunion buddies he'll reminisce
about how much fun it was to sit there on Dad's lawn overlooking the
Potomac smoking dope. To the Drug Enforcement Administration he'll give a
pep talk on how DARE is successfully getting more and more children to narc
out their parents.

And so it goes. Politicians say what they think their audience wants to hear.

--Tim May



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