Political Speechwriting Quotes

Convention speeches are powerful tools to bend the curve of public opinion. George H. W. Bush's 1988 convention speech is a great example. His son's speech was also quite powerful.

Plenty of candidates don’t write their own foreign policy position papers, but Romney is unusual in that he seems not to have even read his.

It's not that I'm apolitical... In my youth, I was a freelance political speechwriter, which taught me a lot about writing fiction, I must add.

I like to think that I'm one of the few people in public life who write their own material. I write every word. And I really enjoy writing - especially my political commentary.

Nearly every politician plagiarizes their speeches, because nearly every politician has a speech writer do the work for them.

I kind of wish people didn’t know who I am, that I could just lie, say I’m a speechwriter for Obama. This is what I said before Twilight. And then Obama came along and picked up all these young writers. I found out this guy, Jon Favreau — who’s not the actor Jon Favreau — is writing for him. And I was like, Wow, I wonder if the people who thought I was bullshitting at the time are like, ‘Oh my god. That guy! That kid who was drunk in some bar actually wrote the health care bill!’

Modern political speechwriting is not a high-minded pursuit for brilliant talents.

Modern political speechwriting is certainly a skill, and one that requires experience and practice to master.

I had the Secret Service actually patrolling my block at some point. I didn't sign up for that. I went to work to write speeches for Barack Obama!

The speechwriter’s very existence is an affront to the politician, because it intimates that the politician is too lazy or stupid to decide what it is he is going to say…. By giving the politician something to say the speechwriter suggests by implication that the politician has nothing to say. So a politician is generally a little resentful toward and ashamed of his speechwriter—not ashamed of the particular person holding the job, simply of the fact that the job exists.