SOTU Style

Submitted by Aaron Banks on 1/22/07

The President will give the State of the Union Address tomorrow, and the White House has been unusually quiet about the speech.  In that spirit, we'll skip right over the substance and go to the style - don't worry we'll be talking about the substance too this week - aptly covered by Sheryl Gay Stolberg in the NYT.  Some revealing points:

  • The President is a very strict editor, or at lease wants the public to think that.
  • The SOTU speechwriting team is terrified of writing another "mediocre speech that was flat" as David Gergen called the televised Iraq address earlier this month.
  • The departure of Michael "axis of evil" Gerson, the former head speechwriter is a major loss.
  • The President is not looking for "flowery language."

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