Carter's Speech Improvement
GLASS, ANDREW J.
\\kshington^USA CARTER'S SPEECH IMPROVEMENT BY ANDREW J. GLASS JIMMY CARTER Washington In Jimmy Carter's White House, speech writers often have been viewed as akin to sausage stuffers...
...he doesn't like to fake it...
...Good speech writers can help him do that, if they get the chance...
...kshington^USA CARTER'S SPEECH IMPROVEMENT BY ANDREW J. GLASS JIMMY CARTER Washington In Jimmy Carter's White House, speech writers often have been viewed as akin to sausage stuffers —anonymous fellows who toil by the yard and who can be easily replaced...
...Meanwhile, the polls indicate that a fair slice of the American electorate today sees the Head of State as a dull, plodding and unimaginative man, unable to stir souls—as did, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy...
...Rafshoon...
...Party types, traditionally loyal to whomever is the President, are now divided over what to do about the political crisis...
...a Ircc/iicni \\\\ I i m>i r i omnlmior...
...In the early phase of his presidential quest...
...That, of course, includes the labor movement...
...The President's meat-and-potatoes style simply fails to lend itself to such grand purposes...
...Compared to this procedure, Fallows was a wild steer, feeding off whatever bureaucratic grass he could scrounge and guessing, often haphazardly, at what it was that the President really wanted...
...Characteristically, Carter, whose outward equanimity seems to be matched only by that of the Great Sphinx, never let on that he minded...
...In addition, he finds him "probably smarter, in the College Board sense, than any other President in this century...
...Hard-core Carter loyalists tend to believe that Fallows was trying to do the President in, while middle level people are inclined to believe the article was written to stir Carter's juices and are greatful to Fallows for lifting the scales from his eyes before it is too late...
...To meet such threats, Carter clearly must do well in the early primaries and caucuses...
...But to keep them divided, and thereby avoid a pincer movement by labor and the liberals, Carter must come up with a coherent and persuasive argument as to why he should be reelected president...
...Specifically, by supporting "favorite son" candidates, they hope to convince the reluctant Senator Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass...
...The worry that the resulting political vacuum will be filled by California Governor Jerry Brown...
...Whether Carter will also prove to be a very good survivor remains to be seen...
...Thus there is no real veteran of the "long march" in the White House who also possesses the many talents of a first-class speech writer, including the clout to help set Administration policy —as was the case with virtually every one of Carter's predecessors since Calvin Coolidge...
...Carter isavery good editor," Hertzberg says...
...In fact, some elements of the still officially neutral AFL-CIO have decided that Carter will be a political cripple in 1980...
...The other prong of the President's political strategy rests on the disarray of the Democrats— both the left and the right—who oppose him...
...It's the downside of his sincerity...
...The void left by Fallows' departure has been largely filled by Rick Hertzberg, another Harvard man, who used to compose unsigned "Talk of the Town" copy for the New Yorker...
...Despite his predominance, at least 20 high-ranking Administration officials had a hand in preparing the prime-time energy speech, which went through six versions before everyone was satisfied...
...Titled "The Passionless Presidency," the piece has caused a deep stir within the White House...
...Nonetheless, the important point is that in the early stages, Hertzberg spent an unprecedented 40 minutes with Carter in the Oval Office discussing the purpose of the speech, working from an initial outline he had prepared for the President's response...
...The idea of giving a speech that raises theemotions— of 'engineering' a response—seems to rub him the wrong way...
...That the President has at long last faced the need to deal effectively with words and symbols—the essential elements of a politician's trade—reflects an ardent desire to keep his job...
...As Fallows sees it, Carter "fails to project a vision larger than the problem he is tackling at the moment" and suffers from a combination of "arrogance, complacency and—dread thought—insecurity at the heart of his mind and soul...
...In the face oI ihis quiet political crisis, he was persuaded to alter his attitude by Gerald Rafshoon, the one-time Atlanta ad man who has worriedly watched the Chief Executive's personal popularity ratings remain stuck on the ground floor despite the expected lift of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty...
...This spring Hertzberg, who bicycles to work, served as the lead writer on Egypt and Isreal and on energy...
...Press Secretary Jody Powell fielded many of the drafting and editing chores, while set speeches were farmed out to willing experts in any given field...
...Yet he doesn't have the time either...
...The practice has been accepted since the birth of the Republic, when Alexander Hamilton wrote George Washington's Inaugural Address...
...In fact, only Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson wrote their speeches...
...And his speech writers faithfully reflect the man they serve under...
...He's been getting better speeches," a top aide said...
...These days—although he still gets a cut at the more important speeches— Powell is too busy swinging loose to quench the ever-present "brush fires" that alight within the presidential press Amiki w J. Gi \s...
...Lacking the luxury of consistent help from an insider, the President was burned by a succession of kiss-and-tel-lers...
...It is still too early to tell how deeply the conversion has taken root, but there is no doubt that Carter's address to the Israeli Knesset and presentation of his energy policy benefited from it...
...Carter, too, would prefer to pen all his stuff...
...That may be a reaction to the traditional Southern demagoguery...
...Recently, (hough, the President has been, rhetorically speaking, "born again...
...Through a quirk, he managed to reach the political big-time without bringing a speech writer in tow...
...Kennedy would then stay out while others would be reluctant to go in as favorite sons to keep the convention nomination open...
...In fact, while he was governor of Georgia, Carter never even had a speech writer...
...is hcailol ilic Cu\ .\i'ir\/>i;/>iv\ Imtwiu in II j\hinvii<n...
...The President is convinced that if this happens, Brown would be finished...
...But the encounters are more meaningful and, besides, Hertzberg doesn't pine about that the way Fallows used to...
...he has even been willing to let them know what's on his mind...
...who has privately told them he will not openly challenge the President—to enter the race...
...Alternatively, they fear that a weakened Carter will emerge as the nominee, only to be felled by Regan or former Texas Governor John Connal-ly...
...He not only has come to privately acknowledge the value of his self-effacing wordsmiths...
...Rafshoon, it will be recalled, was hauled aboard a year ago when it looked as if the President's standing was going to plummet straight through the sub-basement...
...Recent polls have shown him running just about dead even with that old war-horse, Ronald Regan, to the considerable distress of quite a feu sorry Democratic professionals here...
...Hertzberg sees even less of Carter than did Fallows...
...Fallows has written a note to Carter, he says, telling him he will vote for him next year...
...Most Recently, James Fallows, an introspective 29-year-old Harvard man, has left the White House after serving as the President's chief speech writer for two and a half years...
...He's also saving time by agreeing to invest the time up front...
...But all the new-found chumminess with speech writers is not likely to bring Carter to the point of being handed a latter-day Gettysburg Address—words that could be carved into marble and into the memories of unborn generations of schoolchildren...
...Then there was Patrick Anderson, who, some said, was more intent on gathering material for a sensational novel than on performing loyally...
...The current issue of the Atlantic Monthly is running the first of Fallows' two-part, 25,000 word account of his tenure...
...When the committee people were through, Carter himself completely rewrote the opening section and substantially edited the final draft...
...Even if a president has the talent, he does not have the time to prepare his own material...
...And this could well be a result of the failed relationships he has had until now with his speech writers...
...corps...
...Jerry gets Rick in to see Jimmy when it really counts and then he doesn't fool around with the text," a White House insider observed, referring to the ubiquitous Mr...
...Nevertheless, Fallows thinks Carter is "perhaps as admirable a human being as has ever held the job" on Pennsylvania Avenue...
...Speech writing is an honorable art form, although composing epigrams for Chinese fortune cookies may be more gratifying...
...No hired hand, for example, ever touched his Inaugural Address...
...When one works for a former submarine engineering officer, one soon finds that it is best to state one's views on internal White House arrangements in terms of improved efficiency...
...The first of these was Robert Shrum, who left the Carter campaign at the peak of the primary season after tagging the candidate as a phony...
...Sadly, and in self-defense, these labor leaders are taking steps to prevent either possibility...
...He has a good eye for cut-tingout thecrapand likes toget down to brass tacks, rather than try to move his audience by emotional rhetoric...
...Now 35, he cut his teeth on official Washington when the roof fell in on the CIA-bedeviled National Student Association in 1966— he was working there at the time—and the press wolves came baying at the door...
Vol. 62 • May 1979 • No. 10
