Writing speeches is, in a sense,
being the mirror of another person.
"You can try to find the right words," says Dan Cluchey, former speechwriter for President Joe Biden.
"But ultimately your job is to make sure that, when the speech is finished,
it is a reflection of the speaker
."
That concept is infinitely magnified in the role of the presidential speechwriter.
Throughout American history,
these aides absorbed the personalities
, quirks and cadence of the speeches of the
most powerful leader on the planet
, translating his thoughts into all manner of public statements, from the most mundane to the most historic and transcendental.
There are few moments in the presidency when the art - and the rigorous and often painful process - of speechwriting is more on display than during the State of the Union, when the wide range of political aspirations and political messages of a president meet in
a carefully choreographed, hour-plus speech
at the Capitol.
It's a process that former White House speechwriters say
takes months, with countless talks and input from various federal agencies and others
outside the president's inner circle, working to make sure their pet proposals are worthy. a mention
Speechwriters have the unenviable task of taking
dozens of ideas and weaving them together
into
a coherent narrative
of the president's vision for the year.
The State of the Union address is a process that takes months.
Photo: AP
This is not so much elegant prose as
a list of political ideas.
Among all those formalities and limitations of a State of the Union address, there is also
the way a president executes the address.
The age of the president, a problem
Biden's biggest political liability remains his age (81) and voters' doubts about whether he is still fit to serve (last week his doctor
declared him fit for duty
).
His every word is watched by Republican operatives, eager to catch any blunders to sow doubt about Biden's fitness among the public.
"This year, of course, is an election year. There's also a lot more talk about his age," says Michael Waldman, speechwriter for President Bill Clinton.
"
People are going to analyze him as much for how he delivers the speech as for what he says
."
Biden will remain at Camp David until Tuesday and is expected to spend much of that time preparing for the State of the Union.
Bruce Reed, White House deputy chief of staff, accompanied Biden to the presidential retreat outside Washington on Friday night.
The White House said cutting costs, strengthening democracy and protecting women's reproductive health
will be among the topics
Biden will address Thursday night.
Biden likely won't top the list of
most talented
presidential speakers .
What he likes most
are small chance encounters with Americans
, where interactions can be more improvised and intimate.
Biden is known to
hate Washington jargon
and the alphabet soup of government acronyms, and he challenged his aides to
cut down on the clutter and get to the point quickly
when writing their speeches .
Cluchey, who worked for Biden from 2018 to 2022, said the president was deeply involved in the speech-writing process, down to the individual lines and words.
Biden can also appear stiff at times when standing and reading from a teleprompter, but he immediately loosens and appears more comfortable when he switches to a handheld microphone mid-speech.
Biden also learned to overcome his childhood stutter, which he said helped him develop empathy for others facing similar challenges.
The Capitol fenced off for the presidential speech.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP
Former presidential speechwriters list a number of key aspects of capturing another person's voice.
One of them
is to listen to the person a lot
, to get an idea of
their rhythm and how they use language.
It is essential to have
many direct conversations with the president,
to try to get into the commander in chief's thinking and learn how he frames and presents his arguments.
"It's not an act of impression, where you're just trying to get the accent," said Jeff Shesol, another former Clinton speechwriter.
"What you really learn to do and need to learn to do - this is true for speechwriters in any role, but particularly for a president - is to understand not only how he sounds, but
how he thinks
."
Shesol added: "You absorb not just the rhythms and cadences of speech, but a vision of the world."
Furthermore, there is always the possibility that the speaker goes off tone.
Biden is usually sincere
, and White House aides sometimes have to
modify and clarify what he said
in open moments.
But other times, when
he deviates from the script
, he ends up improving on what his assistants had prepared.
For example, last year's State of the Union.
Biden had launched a pre-prepared attack on some Republicans who insisted on demanding renewal votes on popular programs like Medicare and Social Security, which would effectively jeopardize his fate every five years.
That drew
boos from Republicans
and cries of "Liar!"
of the public.
Biden immediately pivoted, encouraging Republicans to contact his office for a copy of the proposal and joking that he
was enjoying his "conversion."
"Folks, we all seem to agree that Social Security and Medicare are off the books, right?
They're not going to touch each other?"
Biden continued.
The crowd of lawmakers applauded.
"Okay. Okay. We have unanimity."
Speechwriters try to prepare for such moments, especially if a president is known for
speaking extemporaneously.
Shesol recalls that Clinton's speechwriters often wrote relatively brief speeches, to prevent the President from deviating from his speech.
The scriptwriters wrote a clear structure into the speech that allowed Clinton
to easily return to his prepared remarks
once he finished his improvisation.
"Clinton used to compare it to
playing a jazz solo and then going back to the score
," Waldman added.
Cluchey, when asked about his reaction to his former boss going off script, described it as a "ballet with various movements from, you know, panic, to 'wait a minute, this is actually really good.'" , and then 'He really did it.'"
Biden is "at his best when
he is most authentic, most loose, when he tells the honest truth
," Cluchey said.
"The speechwriting process, even at its best, is very strict."