Nib #15: Dress for the Occasion

Most speeches are — and should be — workaday things. People don’t come to PTA meetings or subcommittee hearings for spellbinding rhetoric. And most speech-givers can’t deliver it anyway. So part of a speechwriter’s job is dressing for the occasion.

The writers of President Biden’s State of the Union Address last month failed this test when they gassed up his peroration with this:

“I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence.

“Above all, I see a future for all Americans! I see a country for all Americans!”

The writers here are employing anaphora — the rhetorical technique of beginning successive sentences with the same phrase to create poetic rhythm. The problem isn’t the writing, as such. The problem is… Joe Biden is not a prophet!

No one sees him as a visionary leader like an Abraham Lincoln, a Martin Luther King, or even a Barack Obama. And with good reason! Biden himself has curated a down-to-earth, back-slapping personal brand for more than 50 years. His entire 2020 presidential campaign was based on the man’s practiced familiarity and normalcy.

But rather than lean into that vibe — and play to their boss’s strengths — Biden’s staff instead committed the cardinal sin of speechwriting: they wrote for themselves instead of the strategy. Joe Biden’s big-speech perorations should be folksy and self-effacing. His rhetorical model should be Bob Cratchit, not Henry V. By ignoring this, Biden’s speechwriters actually undermined their own speech, their boss, and his broader political strategy.

The lesson for speechwriters here: don't bring kale-foam to a cookout or wear a ballgown to a ballgame. Tailor your text to the speaker, the moment, and the strategy -- never your ego.

Until next week… keep writing!

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Nib #19: Meet Your Audience Where They Are

17 May, 2024

It’s the writer’s job to persuade, not the audience’s *to be* persuaded. To move readers from A to B, you have to meet them at A.

Nib #18: Joe Biden’s Pretty Good Campus Chaos Speech

10 May, 2024

The Nib of the Week’s frequent criticism of President Joe Biden’s speeches belies the soft spot I’ll always have for the guy. So it was nice to see Ole Joe give a pretty good speech about the snarling “encampments” besetting America’s college campuses this Spring. Let’s dive in. The speech begins poorly, alas, with a muddled riff about “fundamental American principles” and some bush-league partisan preening about “authoritarianism” and “those who rush in to score political points.” But then the tone shifts. “Violent protest is not protected [by our Constitution]; peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs.” The language is a bit stilted there, but Biden soon hits his stride. In quick succession, he calls out: “destroying property … vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations … threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear.” Note the hard, prosecutorial word choices. Then, Biden goes even further, aligning himself with the students the encampments are harassing. Then, God love him, Biden goes there: “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students… There is no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American.” Conservative readers may question why anyone should give the president credit for a belated and banal endorsement of basic justice and American political norms. But look more closely at what the president did here: he punched, effectively, to his left. Biden’s biggest problems this election year are the public perceptions that (a) he is a bumbling incompetent in mental decline, and (b) he shares the woke extremism of the New Left. This speech pushes back on both narratives. Biden energetically indicts the encampments’ criminal tactics and then outright condemns their motivating, anti-Semitic bigotry -- targeting the very voters Biden and Democrats need to win in November. Theretofore, most elite Democrats had tried to thread various rhetorical needles on the encampments. “Criticizing Israel isn’t anti-Semitic!” “99% of the protesters are peaceful!” “Rioting is the language of the unheard!” Biden, by contrast, shoves through the bothsidesism like a snowplow. Riots are bad, period . Anti-Semitism is bad, period . Shutting down colleges is bad, period . No doubt some in the White House wanted more nuance, more “but of course…”, more attacks against Republicans or even — gulp — Israel. But those would have compromised the mission of the speech, which was to re-assert Biden’s membership in the United States of Normal, Everyday Americans. Good on him — and whoever in the White House speech-approval process kept the text on the rails. The lesson for young writers — when an issue arises enabling you to triangulate with 97% of the country against a tiny fringe of mouthy, racist criminals, be like Joe and don’t overthink it. Moral clarity still works. Until next week… keep writing!