This is awesome

From 538:

- The Perfect Republican Stump Speech.

We asked former Republican speechwriter Barton Swaim to write a ​totally pandering stump speech for an imaginary GOP presidential candidate — one who ​espouses only positions that a majority of Republicans agree with. ​Here’s the speech he wrote, including notes to explain his phrasing, behind-the-scenes pro tips on appealing to Republican voters and the data he used to decide which positions to take.

Internal strife in the Romney campaign?

That's a building theme among political commentators.

Here's Monday's article from Politico detailing the internal conflict, including disputes over who would write Romney's acceptance speech at the RNC. Its a good look inside a presidential campaign.

The State of the Union Speech Annotated

You might find James Fallows comments on the wording and imagery of this week's speech interesting.

Presidential Speeches

George W. Bush's speechwriter is unimpressed with Obama's recent speeches. He calls them uninspiring.

Analysis of Inaugural Addresses

A great page from the NYT.

White House Ghosts

As my 2302's are wrapping up their papers on presidential speeches there comes a highly touted book on presidents and their speech writers complete with a website dedicated to it.

The Bush Speechwriters

Access to this article requires a subscription to The Atlantic, but it's well worth it (the ACC library probably has a copy).

It's called "Present at the Creation" and is written by a pretty ticked off Matthew Scully, who was a speech writer for both Governor and President Bush until just before his re-election. It's primary purpose is to challenge the claims of one of his fellow speech writers, Michael Gerson, who he says has falsely claimed to have single handedly written most of the Bush's most famous speeches and to have come up with some of the most noteworthy phrases in those speeches (like "axis of evil").

Gerson has since parlayed his position in the Bush administration into a lucrative career as an op-ed writer for the Washington Post. Scully is pretty brutal. He accuses Gerson of deliberate dishonesty. But aside from taking licks at Gerson, Scully also provides a great overview of the process they used to create Bush's speeches. It's a great inside look at how political rhetoric is shaped.