Crafting Biden’s big speech
Lights, camera and action, is the playbook that will be used for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday. The address, one of themost important that a U.S. president delivers, is expected to be viewed by 40 million people worldwide, with all TV networks broadcasting the speech live from the US Capitol.
Some time ago I studied speechwriting at Harvard’s Institute of Politics with two presidential speechwriters: Aram Bakshian who wrote speeches for President’s Nixon, Ford and Reagan; and Ray Price, a Nixon speechwriter. Both experts providedme with a front row seat into howthe State of the Union address is crafted and comes together, a labor intensive job and one of the biggest challenges for those who work behind the scenes in thewhite House speech writing department.
The State of the Union traditionally highlights the administration’s key domestic and foreign policy achievements during the past year, the challenges that lie ahead and howthe president’s legislative agenda is going to address them. It is designed to put the highest shine on the President’s image and to garner support fromthe American people for a jobwell done.
The initial planning for this address usually takes place around Thanksgiving when the speechwriting teambegins to ask Cabinet secretaries to prepare briefs of what theywould like to see in the speech that reflect positively on the departments and agencies under their command. An important part of the teamsmission is diplomacy as every ego driven Cabinet secretary has strong opinions about the direction of the speech, and how their achievements should be prominently featured.
After gathering the briefs, speechwriters meet with the president to hear about the tone and direction he wants his address to take. Several speechwriters then begin the long process of crafting speech drafts, of which there can be dozens, before a polished draft is shared with the president, who will providemany further edits and rewrites. Once these additions aremade, topwhite House officials, from the chief of staff and first lady to select Cabinet officials carefully review the speech to assure that everything said is accurate. It then goes in finished form to the president. It is not unusual for the president to make additional edits as he is being driven to the Capital to address the Joint Session of Congress.
The speechwriters are wordsmiths who focus on themes and messages that resonate with the American people of all ages, using the power of language to educate, persuade and motivate, along withwriting specific lines that will generate applause and even standing ovations during delivery. Every word of every sentence will be scrutinized by world leaders and dissected during post media analysis of the address. A fewdays before the speech is delivered, the president has a formal practice session, usually in thewhite House theatre, with a small and select group of advisors. Using a teleprompter, the president practices verbal and non verbal delivery, often times changing words to make them more easy to pronounce. The president will continue to review the printed speech to increase familiarity with its messaging and delivery.
The State of the Union is a great moment of soaring political rhetoric and ceremonial pageantry making this stagecraft a made for TV event.
How will President Biden’s State of the Union play to the American people? You be the judge.