(Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)On Tuesday, all eyes and ears will be turned to the man whose oratorical skills have been compared to Abraham Lincoln’s, Franklin Roosevelt’s and John Kennedy’s. What does Barack Obama need to do in his inaugural address? We asked William Safire and other former presidential speechwriters for their ideas.
Updated, Friday, Jan. 16 | Michael Waldman, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton joins this discussion.
- William Safire, a speechwriter to President Richard Nixon
- Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter to President Bill Clinton
- Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter to President George H.W. Bush
- Gordon Stewart, a speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter
- Michael Waldman, a speechwriter to President Bill Clinton
Seize the Moment
William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon and a former Times Op-Ed columnist, writes the weekly “On Language” column in The Times Magazine.
First impressions count. The Inaugural Address is the first impression Americans will get of President Barack Obama. No longer a candidate, or standard-bearer, or president-elect; finally sworn, the nation’s 44th president speaks with new responsibility and authority.
What should he say and how should he say it? He told us on ABC early this week what he sees as his main task in this speech: “to try to capture as best I can the moment that we are in … this is the crossroad that we’re at. And then to project confidence that if we take the right measures that we can once again be that country, that beacon for the world.”
The moment is one imbued with pervasive worry about the prospect of hard times ahead. The speech he has undoubtedly studied closely for its moment is the 1933 address by Franklin Roosevelt, delivered with the nation already in the grip of depression, 40 percent of the work force unemployed. Two lessons are to be drawn from phrases in that speech: “fear itself” and “the money changers.”
“In Obama’s speech next week, he ‘cannot escape history.’”
Forty years ago, compiling my first political dictionary, I asked Raymond Moley, the F.D.R. speechwriter who worked most closely with the president-elect on that speech, where “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” came from. He said that Louis Howe, a gnomelike, politically savvy man who was F.D.R.’s closest confidante, crossed out the early draft’s opening line about “no time for false hopes” as lacking a forceful show of confidence. He had seen, in a recent department-store newspaper ad, the “fear itself” quotation from Henry David Thoreau, and Howe wrote atop the draft: “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
That worked magnificently. The second lesson we can draw from that speech was what in retrospect strikes me as a mistake: a divisive diatribe at “the rulers of the exchange … the unscrupulous money changers … fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.” That Bible-based blast at “the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success” fanned populist resentment and gave a class-struggle coloration to parts of that speech, forgotten today in the “fear itself” uplift. Obama would do well to avoid such scapegoating.
(Disclosure in chagrin: in an economic speech drafted for President Nixon taking us off the gold standard and imposing wage-price control, I recalled F.D.R.’s usage and took a pop at the “international money-changers” raiding our gold supply; central banker Arthur Burns got Nixon to substitute the milder “speculators.”)
The other speech that Obama and his speechwriting aides have surely been poring over is Lincoln’s First Inaugural. (Not so much his Second, written as the Civil War was ending, its beautiful peroration of forgiveness “with malice toward none” — but the first, at the moment of impending war.) The tone of Lincoln’s early draft was harsh, concluding with a challenge to the seceding Southern states: “Shall it be peace or a sword?” Cooler heads prevailed, and his great, closing theme became a fraternal “we are not enemies, but friends.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (Photo: Associated Press)In Obama’s speech next week, he “cannot escape history,” in the phrase of the Great Emancipator. Obama becomes the first black president of the United States on the day after the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., not far from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and just two weeks before the nation’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
I hope these three historic elements are handled subtly, in a powerfully understated way, in Obama’s address. F.D.R. did not say he was the first disabled president to take the presidential oath; John Kennedy did not say he was the first Catholic to do so. The event speaks for itself, and the subtle way for this new president to note that he is the first of his race to achieve our highest office is to drop a couple of quotations from Lincoln and King into his treatment of “the moment” — a time of national challenge to change our economic direction, audaciously hopeful. Everybody in the world will get the point, and the relatively short, thematic speech will be long remembered.
The Speaker and the Message
Jeff Shesol, a deputy chief speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, is a partner at a communications strategy firm. He is writing a book about Franklin Roosevelt and the Supreme Court.
The deck, one would think, is stacked in a new president’s favor. At the time of his inauguration, the national goodwill he enjoys is probably greater than he will ever enjoy again, and the setting grander (the columns, for example, are made of actual marble). A new president could stand on the inaugural platform, sneeze into the microphone, and win praise for his “great force and brevity.”
Yet there is something about inaugural addresses — perhaps it’s the siren call of immortality — that tempts presidents and their speechwriters into rhetorical ruin (and abominable abuses of alliteration). The anthology of American inaugural addresses is, but for a few bright spots, one long muddle of grandiosity, mundanity — and forgetability.
Who can remember — actually, who can bear to remember — Richard Nixon’s grasping of the “chalice of opportunity,” or Dwight Eisenhower’s nine (yes, nine) “rules of conduct” for the United States, or Jimmy Carter’s homage to “my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman,” or William McKinley’s summons, at the start of the 20th century, to ensure the “honest and faithful disbursement” of congressional appropriations?
“President Obama will give a great speech — well-crafted, well-delivered, well-received … But will his words endure?”
Most drafts do not improve upon delivery. Some presidents mimic the cadence of Abraham Lincoln; others, Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy (even Nixon could not get Kennedy out of his head: “Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike,” Nixon said in 1969); and some, all of the above. To their own ears, one presumes, this is what a president sounds like. To our ears, especially years later, it can sound tinny and inauthentic, less like an inaugural address than like a parody of one.
What, then, should Barack Obama do? Trust his instincts. He is, of course, very, very good at giving speeches. Ask his campaign opponents, who denigrated speechmaking as an empty exercise. Mr. Obama knew better. Even before taking the oath of office, he has shown that his words have power, that speech can be a form of action.
President Obama will give a great speech — well-crafted, well-delivered, well-received. There can’t be much doubt about that. But will his words endure? That depends on whether he is able to strike the right balance between speaking to the moment and speaking to history; between addressing the audience and addressing the ages. The best inaugural speeches manage to do both — to represent a perfect union of the speaker, the message and the moment.
Think (as Mr. Obama has) of Lincoln’s two inaugural addresses, each defines its time. F.D.R.’s “fear itself” could only have been uttered by that man at that time, the depth of the Depression; and only John Kennedy could have credibly marked the passing of the torch at the start of the 1960s. But all ring with relevance in our own times, because all speak to enduring American truths. They do not simply bring history to life. The words themselves live.
Location, Location, Location
Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, writes speeches for leaders of Fortune 500 companies and has taught speechwriting at Georgetown University and Texas A&M University.
Ronald Reagan was the first to use the West Front of the Capitol for the inauguration, and he did it to great effect, describing his view of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and then concluding by honoring the soldiers whose tombstones he could see across the river in Arlington National Cemetery. That’s one of the first rules of speechwriting: make the most of your location.
(Photo: Lawrence Jackson/Associated Press)Similarly, Barack Obama should point to the Lincoln Memorial, at the end of the Mall from the West Front, where 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of “the fierce urgency of now.” It was there that King challenged the millions of Americans gathered on the Mall that morning to “go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that this situation can and will be changed.” He spoke of hope, and freedom and dreams. Undoubtedly, Obama will touch on the same themes, and unlike other presidents who have quoted King, it won’t sound like a reach.
That brings me to the second rule: challenge your audience to act, and act now. If Obama were to exhort the Americans on the Mall to go back to their towns armed with the fierce urgency of now — and the television cameras panned across the jam-packed crowd, standing cheek to jowl on the Mall, shouting, “Yes, we can” — it would convey to the millions watching around the world not only the breadth but also the diversity of Americans supporting this new president. And issuing a challenge to the assembled crowd has worked well before: John F. Kennedy asked the audience to join in this “historic effort” to impromptu shouts of “Yes! Yes!” Then he very effectively passed the torch to a new generation.
In fact, if I were the president-elect’s speechwriter, I’d go back to Obama’s keynote address to the 2004 Democratic convention. That was the night he introduced himself to the American people, and he told the story of his family beautifully: his grandfather marching with Gen. George Patton’s army across Europe; his parents giving him an African name meaning “blessed,” because they believed that in a tolerant America a name is no barrier to success. That night, he spoke of the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs, and of immigrants on distant shores, and of skinny kids with funny names who believe in America.
Barack Obama can deliver a speech unlike anyone in our generation. He knows how to get people off the couch — to vote, to give time and money, and now to act with the audacity of hope. Inauguration Day is the day to do ask them to do that.
And I have one final tip, to make this speech one for the history books: Bring the puppy.
Speak to People, Not Posterity
Gordon Stewart, a speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter, is director of thenextdeal.org, a Web-based debate on revising the American social contract.
For all the lofty language, most inaugural addresses usually inspire a strong urge to see a parade, get out of the cold and start the parties. (Tip for first-time inaugural ball goers: try to avoid checking your coat. When the president leaves, so does everyone else.)
Though among the lower forms of literature, the curious genre of a presidential inaugural address has evolved its own rules:
1. Praise the country and its people as God’s gift to the rest of humanity.
2. Extol the peaceful transition of power as though not having a coup was a miracle.
3. Thank the predecessor at the outset, and then trash his administration for 20 minutes.
4. Declare the end of partisanship, a vow that in the age of cable-Internet-talk radio will last less than 10 minutes.
“Mr. President-elect, define our threat starkly but soberly. Set forth the actions we must take.”
A special quality of the narrative thrust or coherent line of argument in inaugural addresses is that neither exists. The typical structure consists of oratorical clumps arranged in no discernible order. And of course, there will be a desperate clutching at Ted Sorensen’s robe in the form of awkwardly lurid “great phrases.” (A fun evening for speechwriters: lift rhetorical clusters out of inaugural addresses and bet on who said what.)
However, as with so much about our elected emperors, exceptions do not make the rule, they break it. George Washington’s first combines modesty with dignity, integrity and a seriousness of purpose we have rarely approached, but to which we are still heirs. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were above all writers, meaning they were also thinkers. Try doing the first well without doing the second, and you will understand why great inaugurals are so rare.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, center, delivered his inaugural address in 1933. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)My personal favorite is Abraham Lincoln’s first. This amazing work opens with still-shocking commitments to his opponents, followed by a forceful argument for preserving the union, leading to a declaration that he will do whatever it takes. Best to come after is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first, which uses a similar enunciation of crisis leading to a declaration that he will confront the very institution upon whose porch he is standing unless he is given the means to fight. In our time, John F. Kennedy’s inaugural gained a place in the one-minute montage of the 20th century when he proclaimed a global crisis and defined his and our challenge as “defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”
What do these all have in common? First, because they were all occasioned by a genuine crisis, they are written for the moment, not for the ages — marble is a medium best left to stone cutters. Second, they are built from an inexorable line of reasoning. Third, they all warn us bluntly that the price to be paid for a stronger nation, will come from us, not from imposing suffering on others. Fourth, they credibly promise that we have every reason to hope.
Well, all that said, here’s my unsolicited advice (something even mediocre presidents learn to live with) to Barack Obama:
Mr. President-elect, define our threat starkly but soberly. Set forth the actions we must take. This is the last moment you will have for four to eight years to define yourself more by your words than by what you do. Use these words to prepare us for what we have no choice but to do. Warn us that these actions will not be easy, often unpopular and not immediately transforming.
Your election may be historic, but will not by itself renew America. Our story is written by its people. It is they who made the history we live today, and we who will make the history of our childrens’ tomorrows. Together, we will be tested as were the generations of the cold war, the world wars — and, yes, even as were those who created and preserved this Union. Together, we can make this the time of which Mr. Lincoln dreamed.
Of course, giving advice to Barack Obama, who thinks and writes with a sense of direction we have not seen since F.D.R., is like giving pointers to Michael Jordan or Vladimir Horowitz. As a veteran who failed more often than not, I can hardly wait to hear our nation’s 55th inaugural address.
Add a Bit of Militancy
Michael Waldman, former director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton, worked on two inaugural addresses and four State of the Union Addresses. He is author of “My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Presidential Speeches From George Washington to George W. Bush” and the executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
When I was working on Bill Clinton’s first inaugural address in 1993, I taped some rules above my computer screen. “No quoting dead people.” “No reversible raincoat sentences.” (Ask not, etc.) Every one of the rules was broken by the time we were done drafting the address. So I hesitate to give advice to a speaker who has such a clear sense of self and moment.
As we know, few inaugural addresses have been memorable. What made FDR’s inaugural, Lincoln’s, Jefferson’s exceptions? Eloquence yes, but context mattered more. Crisis? Collapse? War? Anxiety? At the very least, Barack Obama has the raw materials for a memorable speech.
“This is also a chance to repudiate a failed governing philosophy.”
He has wielded oratory as a political weapon in a way not seen since Reagan, and he’s shown impressive discipline, fitting the style to the occasion. For his convention speech, the political imperative demanded not a soaring talk, but a meat-and-potatoes list of promises. (A senior Obama campaign staff member told me at the time that “all the Lexington and Concord stuff” got cut for length.) This speech, of course, calls for far more vivid writing, bigger themes and a touch of formality.
Inaugural addresses tend to fall into two categories: those that demand “action now,” as F.D.R. did, or those that seek unity and summon the “better angels of our nature,” as Lincoln’s did. Much suggests he will give a “bring us together” speech. But personally, I crave a bit of militancy and a compelling argument.
Perhaps there’s a generation gap in how such speeches are heard. I suspect younger listeners might find calls for unity the heart of his appeal. But this is also a chance to repudiate a failed governing philosophy. He should consider replying to Reagan, who declared in his first inaugural address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” With the world listening, what better time to make a forceful argument for activist government? We need the balm of unity, but we also need a passionate president able to take on the chaos now enveloping our economy.
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While Obama will probably evoke Lincoln in his speech, another American he should consult is Thoreau. The Bard of Walden was no Utopian. He made allowances for life’s idiosyncrasies and yet taught us how to lead lives of dignity and fulfillment.
Hard, honest and meaningful work (unlike, say, the work of speculators and money managers) was central to Thoreau’s vision of life. “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” With millions of people losing their life savings to Wall Street greed and cruelty, we need to be reminded that “goodness is the only investment that never fails.” Obama has promised dramatic changes in the status quo but he should also tell us that ultimately “things do not change: we change,” that “what lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.”
Thoreau spoke uncomfortable truths with clarity and grace. His words were tough, true, lyrical and soaring, a synthesis impossible save for a few. While telling us unflinchingly of what lay beneath our feet, Thoreau also made us look up at the stars. His a supremely difficult act to emulate but that’s what the 44th president of the United States must do in his inaugural address if we are to rise above our current crisis and become a beacon to the world.
— Hasan Z RahimI believe that the Airbus incident yesterday is an astounding metaphor for the US at the very crossroad Obama has spoken about.
The two birds that apparently took out the plane’s engines would represent the lies and deception that Bush foisted on the nation and the world.
It is left to Obama, the soon-to-be pilot of the plane to bring about a safe landing, and a way for people to get on with their lives.
— Bush was a natural disaster.I’m sure he will give a very good speech. But as they say, talk is cheap. Obama and the Democratic congress are going to have to WALK THE WALK this time.
Otherwise, Obama will be a one-term president and the Democrats will be given their walking papers in a repeat of 1996.
— Jojo“The War on Terror” should be redefined and refocused to include only terror and not to camouflage, as did the Bush Administration, other motives and objectives.
— Omar I. NashashibiSTATE terror as much as other forms and venues of terror should be included in the redinition for the “war on terror” to become a universal mission and not only an American mission targetting only America’s adversaries.
Well, only Barack Obama himself is to blame for the world awaiting breathlessly his inaugural speech, wich will for instance be transmitted live on our Flemish radio - a first. After all, you names this article ‘The Speech’ without having to specify what we’re all talking about.
He has already proven himself to be the best political speecher of this generation - worldwide. His 2004 Convention speech, his speech on race, and his election day speech are already part of the book of greatest speeches ever, alongside speeches from Cato, Cicero, Churchill, Lincoln, FDR, and JFK. I’m sure he will draw heavily on Lincoln, and for the rest, this will be without any doubt a great speech - it is after all a moment he has been dreaming of for years and working towards his whole adult life, he has bright speechwriters, he has unusually clear ideas to tell, ke knwos how to tell a story, and he knows how to deliver the ideas in an unforgettable way.
I can only hope our expectations are not surhumanly high, and I fear that even a great speech might be a slight disappointment for not for instance stopping the earth turning around the sun.
— erik de koster, brusselsAmerica faced and solved Depression with a New Deal - Europe tried and gave up to totalitarian systems. Roosevelt stood up with four freedoms, Europe barely survived. Today America chose Obama – Europe sends thee separate delegations to Gaza, cannot coordinate monetary policy, violence spreads from France to Greece and Latvia… It doesn’t know how to come out of the cold. Yet, both are part of the Western World. New President of the United States will speak to all of us. It is especially so with President Obama who ads Global, or at least underprivileged, African component as well. We need freedom for Responsibility. Responsibility for democracy, for peace, for sustainable development, for environmental protection, for health – for self respect. His speech should show the Man with will for a better world, inviting us to pool our knowledge and resources together and give us courage to take action, everyone and all.
— Dr Slobodan LangIt is a known fact that the United Nations is not only an enemy of Israel, but also of the United States of America. From its conception it has been nothing more than a tool of Satan’s to promote his attack against the Jewish and Christian beliefs. The American people have tolerated their existance because of an old but true saying, which is keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer. The millions of people being killed in Africa doesn’t seem to warrant the U.N.’s intervention. But Israel who only seeks to coexist brings down their wrath,well quess what, as soon as the U.S.A. is no longer of any help to Israel, then you people shall see Divine intervention. GOD has said HE will bless those that bless Israel and HE will curse those that curse Israel. America is almost to the point where she can not help itself because of sin, less a lone Israel, or anybody else. GOD shall shortly show HIS hand in the middle-east and Abraham shall be blessed again with his married begotten children not the servant’s child.
— Hearthy Elijah Mathis IIOne could do worse than use what happened yesterday in New York as a symbol of what this country really is, can be, and should try to return to.
— ImpressedAn expert pilot with brains, talent, experience and audacity (a leader others listened to); rescuers who raced to help, who knew instinctively what to do while ignoring their own well-being in their concern for others; calm people who took care of each other and averted what could have been a disaster. New York, the city’s guests, and New Yorkers themselves again showed us what is best about America while they showed the world how things are supposed to be done.
May they forever be blessed.
President Obama is speaking to America, but he is also speaking for America to the world. And he is doing this in a time of global economic crisis. He should make it clear that the world’s most powerful and prosperous society is committed to promote insofar as this is possible, the prosperity and freedom of mankind as a whole. He should have a phrase to warn ‘enemies’ but should above all outline a model of cooperation and respect for and with others.
— Shalom FreedmanPresident Obama’s speech will be scrutinized as intensively overseas as in America. Since the gravitas of an inaugural address forbids that he directly reproaches his predecessor for 8 disastrous years of image and policy degradation (from Kyoto through Baghdad to Guantanamo), he might consider rekindling in word and deed those qualities that made America the great and envied world leader it once was. Namely: religious freedom, racial equality, allegiance to the Constitution, respect for human rights, and government settings that maximized individual and national dynamism. He should avoid naivety, eschew arrogance but demonstrate considered determination. The race issue needs little to be said - the singer is the song.
— Jaque GrinbergThe line I would love to hear is, “In accepting the presidency of the United States, I, with some great affection and sense of loss, offer my resignation from the Democratic party.” After the last 16 years, wouldn’t it be a delight to have a President of the entire United States of America?
— Greg CoxWhat we hope from the speech, actually, is that it won’t sacrifice truth and priority for fluency, sense for sound.
For example, while it may be fetching to compare Obama to the rhetoric of Sorenson or the promise of Kennedy, that comparison really serves the forces of a Kennedyesque past better than the needs of our future.
Factual note (ref. Ms. Cary): Obama wasn’t two years old during the Kennedy inaugural; he wasn’t born yet; he would be two at the dark swearing in of LBJ.
It’s okay if the speech falls short, though I commend the advice of Mr. Stewart, above, to invoke what the people must do—work hard, share sacrifice, walk humbly–to rise through a crisis.
Speech, schmeech; inaugural, schminaugural. What matters more will be how we answer the call.
— Tom Feigelsonnice article.
— chirag shahMarvelous!! Imagine having all these gifted folks working on a speech with President Obama as the person to deliver it.
— EDMACWhat a waste of space…
Gordon Stewart said it all:
“Of course, giving advice to Barack Obama, who thinks and writes with a sense of direction we have not seen since F.D.R., is like giving pointers to Michael Jordan or Vladimir Horowitz. As a veteran who failed more often than not, I can hardly wait to hear our nation’s 55th inaugural address.”
— Bill AngelosI, too, can hardly wait to hear Barack Obama’s words. A great people need a great leader. I believe we will have the leader we so desperately need. So it is up to us.
I will go to my grave never understanding how we managed to reelect George Bush.
— John P.Based on his earliar speeches Barrak Obama will give an excellent speech. He is a natural leader who knows how to communicate. He will also be inspiring.
— Ike NaqviCannot wait!
— ShaneAsking a speechwriter what the President should do is like asking the squeek how to build a mouse. Only the New York Times, once venerable now vulnerable, would be so shallow.
— jsbI’ll be looking forward to hearing Obama’s speech
— branly ogeFor all of US survivalists - nurtured some by Winston S. Churchill’s prophetic declaration that it would be “foolish of mankind were it ever to believe that it had unlimited time available” - having witnessed in recent times a german pope and numerous examples of former prisoners-of -state who later went on to lead their nation (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, South Africa and South Korea to name a few - for history evidently is the ironic flux of reversals). And since these events are to be seen as clear proof that the human story is about to enter its final chapter, we should all hope that the new incumbent’s inauguration speech will faithfully follow and complete President Bush’s Day of The Inauguration spirited discernment, stated thus :” The angel rides the whirlwind and directs the storm.”
— PetrusrIt’s not only a matter of rhetoric ,after all.
I pray he will invite us to be a “united” states of america once more.
— Lisa DudleyLooking at the picture of Martin Luther King, and anticipating Barack Obama’s address, one must not neglect the sentiment of the people in the crowd: a powerful, almost palpable, ‘He speaks for us.’
— JosephAny attempts at grandiosity and gravitas that do not pertain to the moment at hand will come off as forced at best.
— Roy MatthewsonI can’t wait for his address either. He will be his own man.
— John, toledo