speech writer for barack obama

Cody Keenan: How I wrote Barack Obama’s speeches

. . .which he then rewrote. the ex-president’s speechwriter reveals their collaborative art.

US president Barack Obama addressing members of the public at Gollege Green, Dublin, during a ceremony as part of his visit to Ireland in May 2011. Photograph: Alan Betson

My family left Ireland for America seven generations ago. To the best of our knowledge, Patrick Keenan left Cork sometime in the 1770s. He was counted in the first American census. His son, Peter Keenan, was born in America. On my mother’s side, John McThomas left Dublin around the same time, fought for America in the Revolution, and was buried in a national cemetery in Ohio.

As far as I know, I was the first in my family, on either side, to return. My first visit was with my best friend back in 2005. We were broke, relied on the kindness of strangers and camped wherever we could – a town park in Kinsale, a beach outside Galway, a farm in Dingle.

My second visit, in May 2011, was a bit different. Surely, it was something my ancestors could not imagine. I flew over in a highly modified 747, crossing the sea they had sailed, with the first black president of a country they helped settle. Hundreds of people were lined up along Moneygall village’s main street, waving Irish and American flags.

Barack Obama is two generations closer to Ireland than I am. And I know people have a laugh at how Moneygall has made the most of that relationship. But it is not a relationship that should be discounted.

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Much has been made of his Kenyan ancestry. But remember, he only met his father twice. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents. That side of his family is one he holds just as dear. Moneygall’s favourite great-great-great-grandson really does have a soft spot for Ireland and its people. He revealed as much in his address to the people of Ireland that day, delivered to a throng that had gathered along Dublin’s College Green:

It was remarkable to see the small town where a young shoemaker named Falmouth Kearney, my great-great-great-grandfather, lived his early life. He left during the Great Hunger, as so many Irish did, to seek a new life in the New World. He travelled by ship to New York, where he entered himself into the records as a 'labourer'. He married an American girl from Ohio. They settled in the Midwest. They started a family.

It’s a familiar story, one lived and cherished by Americans of all backgrounds. It’s integral to our national identity. It’s who we are – a nation of immigrants from all over the world…

We call it the American Dream. It is the dream that drew Falmouth Kearney to America from a small village in Ireland. It is the dream that drew my own father to America from a small village in Africa. It is a dream that we have carried forward, sometimes through stormy waters, sometimes at great cost, for more than two centuries.

It’s not something he would have imagined when he was a young Chicago politician, bringing up the rear of the St Patrick’s Day parade, followed only by the sanitation workers picking up the pieces. It is not something that, for my first 26 years or so, I could have imagined, either.

Growing up, I had always taken a keen interest in politics, because my parents argued about it on a regular basis – but I began university with plans of becoming a surgeon. Chemistry class altered those plans pretty quickly. I dedicated myself instead to political science, and after graduation, I moved to Washington DC.

Cody Keenan, who served as director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama. ‘In less than 10 years, I went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House,’ he says. Photograph: Lawrence Jackson/The White House

After a dozen failed interviews, I finally became one of 100 interns under someone for whom I will always be grateful: John F Kennedy’s kid brother, Ted. It remains my best political learning experience.

I was at the Democratic Convention in 2004 when a young state senator from Illinois introduced himself to the country. I must have talked about that speech a lot, because that is when I got my shot. One day, my overworked boss poked his head around the corner and asked, “hey, can you write a speech?”

I had never considered speechwriting. But I lied and said yes. I stayed up all night panicking my way through it. That one led to a few more. And eventually, a colleague connected me with senator Obama's chief speechwriter Jon Favreau. We hit it off, and I became an intern all over again, this time in Chicago, on an upstart presidential campaign; this time the only intern.

And as our poll numbers rose, and our crowds grew, so did my opportunities to write. We won and went to the White House. I moved into a West Wing office with Jon. And I never stopped working my tail off so that when he left, and Obama had to choose a new chief speechwriter, I was the only choice to take his place.

In less than 10 years, I went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House.

What goes into a good speech? Well, the first thing I can tell you is that there’s no alchemy to it; no magic formula. It’s more art than science, and after 3,577 speeches in the White House, I admit a lot of it is not art, either. I have been fortunate, though, to work for someone who views it as a craft; as a way to organise his thoughts into a coherent argument and present them to the world. He takes it seriously. He was anonymous when he walked into that Boston hall in 2004, and a political rock star when he walked out. That is what a speech can do.

To this day, by the way, he reminds me that he wrote that one by himself. All the time.

He’s a frighteningly good writer, which makes my job both harder and easier. Harder because I will stay up all night to get him a draft he will be happy with. Easier because if I do not hit the mark, he is there to back me up. And when it came to any speech of consequence, President Obama was actively involved in the product. We would often begin the process for big speeches by sitting down with him in the Oval Office. We called it “The Download”. He would walk us through what was on his mind, what he wanted to say, and we would type as fast as possible.

He would always begin with the question, “what story are we trying to tell?”

Once we got his download, we would get to work, and get him a draft. He would often work on it himself until well past midnight. And this may sound counter-intuitive, but it was always a good thing to hear that he had a lot of edits. It did not mean he disliked what we put down. It meant we gave him what he needed to do the job.

When I was drafting the Charleston eulogy, for example – the speech in which he sang Amazing Grace – I stayed up for three days straight trying to make it perfect. I handed the draft to him the afternoon before the speech and went home to sleep. Right before I turned in, I got an email from him asking me to come back and meet him at 11 o’clock that night.

He told me he liked the first two pages. But he had rewritten the next two pages in just a few hours. It was annoying. Still, I apologised for what I saw as letting him down. But he stopped me and said, “Brother, we are collaborators. You gave me what I needed. The muse hit. And when you have been thinking about this stuff for 40 years, you will know what you want to say, too.”

Jon was good at building the big case and laying out the big argument. That was not my strength. I went for people’s guts. I wanted to build moral and emotional cases. I wanted to make people feel something. A sense of connection. A sense of belonging. A sense of being heard. That’s a pretty important part of storytelling.

And I think the best story we ever told came in a 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama.

In 1965, a group of mostly black Americans set out to march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery to demand their right to vote. They barely made it across the town bridge before their non-violent protest was met with violent resistance. The images shocked the conscience of the country and pushed President Johnson to call for a Voting Rights Act.

The idea that just 50 years later, a black president would return to commemorate what they did was extraordinary enough. We could have gone with a safe, simple speech commemorating the anniversary. People would have understood the symbolism. It would have been enough.

US president Barack Obama walks alongside Amelia Boynton Robinson (second right), one of the original marchers; first lady Michelle Obama; and US Representative John Lewis (second left), Democrat of Georgia, and also one of the original marchers, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches on March 7th, 2015. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

But the week before, a Republican politician went on television and said this: “I know this is a terrible thing to say . . . ” By the way, if you begin a thought that way, you don’t have to finish it. Free advice. But he continued, “I do not believe that the President loves America . . . He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

I was pissed about it. It was more dog whistle nonsense designed to delegitimise the first African American president – and, I might add, the first president to win more than 51 per cent of the vote twice since Dwight Eisenhower almost 60 years earlier.

“No Drama Obama”, true to form, was not ruffled. He thought it was a comment that merited no response. He did, however, think it was an idea worth taking on. Who gets to decide what it means to love America? Who gets to decide who belongs and who does not? Who gets to decide what patriotism is all about? And we came up with the thesis of that speech:

What could be more American than what happened in this place? What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people, the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country’s course?

What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?

The rest of that half hour made up my favourite speech. It was our purest collaboration. At one point, I made a joke that our story is too often told, in political speeches at least, as if the Founding Fathers set everything up, some Irish and Italians came over, we beat the Nazis, and here we are. But there is more to our story than that. This felt more complete, more honest. He said well, let’s include some characters from our story. “Go come up with some America.”

I grabbed my speechwriters, and we came up with: “Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, and Susan B Anthony, women who could do as much as any man and then some.” We made it a big open casting call:

Immigrants and Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. Slaves and ranch hands and cowboys and labourers and organisers.

The GIs who liberated a continent and the Tuskeegee Airmen, and Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied. The firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11. The volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. The gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down that bridge.

The inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, all our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing. We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes.

If there is one Obama speech I could make people watch, that is it. It was the best, most joyous distillation of the way he sees what this country is and can be. It was the idea that through the hard work of self-government, generations of Americans, often young Americans, often without power or title, often at great risk to themselves, have looked upon our flaws and worked to widen the circle of our founding ideals until they include everybody, and not just some.

That is how I see politics. This collective endeavour; the balance between the realism to see the world as it is, and the idealism to fight for the world as it should be anyway.

It was the exhausting, fulfilling work of those 2,922 days in the White House that gave my career meaning. But when I feel the tugging temptation of cynicism, I reach for my proof point that this whole messy endeavour of democracy can work: the 10 most hopeful days I ever saw in politics.

They began in the darkest way imaginable – a mass shooting in the basement of a Charleston church. A black church. It threatened to reopen the kinds of wounds and spark the kinds of recrimination we saw more recently in Charlottesville. But it did not unfold that way. The families of the victims forgave their killer in court. Then, there was a public recognition of the pain that the Confederate flag stirs in so many citizens, and actual introspection and self-examination that we too rarely see in public life, to the point where that flag finally came down from the South Carolina state capitol.

At the same time, it was a week when the supreme court could rule on any case, at any time, with no heads up. So while we worked on the president’s eulogy for Charleston, we were busy drafting several other statements in case he had to speak quickly.

Thursday morning, boom: Obamacare was upheld as constitutional for the second time. Obama spoke. Friday morning, boom: marriage equality becomes a reality in America. Obama spoke. An hour later, we boarded Marine One to fly to Air Force One, which would ferry us to Charleston.

I was still working in his changes to the eulogy for that afternoon. He had added the lyrics to Amazing Grace overnight. And just before he stepped off the helicopter, he turned and said, “you know, if it feels right, I might sing it”. Exhausted, I simply said “okay”. And that night, we returned to a White House that was no longer white – but bathed in the colours of the rainbow. We wrote 10 speeches in those 10 days – plus a few that never had to see the light of day.

Those 10 days were on my mind as I added these words to President Obama’s farewell address:

Ultimately, that's what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there's an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you're tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organising. If you're disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you'll win. Sometimes you'll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energise and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed.

– Cody Keenan is a speechwriter who has worked with former US president Barack Obama for more than a decade. From Whence I Came – The Kennedy Legacy, Ireland and America, is edited by Brian Murphy & Donnacha Ó Beacháin. It is published by Merrion Press and dedicated to the memory of former Irish Times columnist Noel Whelan, 1968-2019

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Jon Favreau has the world's best job

By Matthew d'Ancona

In his memoirs, the late Ted Sorensen, speech writer and close advisor to John F Kennedy, recalls that President Clinton's press secretary, Mike McCurry, once told him: "Everyone who comes to Washington wants to be you." What McCurry meant was that, decades after Sorensen had left the White House, new arrivals in the nation's capital still modelled themselves upon him, longing to be the young advisor close to an inspirational president, entrusted with the politically sacred task of turning his thoughts into words. Many have aspired to the role. But perhaps the most extraordinary example of those who have followed Sorensen's example is Jon Favreau, director of speech writing to Barack Obama - and not yet 30.

When the president makes his state visit to Britain later this month, he will deliver speeches prepared by Favreau and his team.

More broadly, as Obama strives to recover from the "shellacking" of his party in last year's midterms and prepares to seek a second term in November 2012, Favreau will be at the heart of his quest to find a language that connects with Middle America and persuades Joe Six-Pack that Obama deserves four more years in the White House.

The president has often declared his admiration for Ronald Reagan.

It is remarkable to reflect that Favreau was not even born when Reagan won the presidency. Obama himself is scarcely a senior citizen. But the wunderkind was only 15 when his future boss became a state senator in Illinois.

Favreau came of age in the high season of The West Wing , the show that did more than anything since JFK's Camelot to glamorise the life of the White House aide. For once, however, political reality has trumped political myth. When it comes to exhilaration, intellectual energy and sheer desirability, the life Favreau now leads surpasses even that led by the young guns Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman in Martin Sheen's fictional Bartlet administration. Plucked by Obama from the life of a disillusioned DC drone - so hard up he lived off happy-hour deals in cheap Washington joints - Favreau now tours the world on Air Force One at the side of the world's most powerful man, laptop slung over his shoulder, making history as he goes. "Dude, what you're writing is going to be hung up in people's living rooms!" Bill Burton, Obama's campaign press chief, said to his young colleague as he tapped away at a draft of the inaugural address. Favreau was 27 at the time: only in show business and sport do the young experience so much pressure, power and glamour so early in life.

To understand the Obama presidency, one must understand Jon Favreau (not to be confused with his namesake, the Hollywood actor and Iron Man director). Tall, gap-toothed, recognisable by his Timberlake buzz cut, the 29-year-old is the man to whom the 44th president entrusts one of his most precious political assets: his oratory. George W Bush made hundreds of speeches, some of them very significant (the State of the Union address in 2002 that identified the "axis of evil", the West Point speech in the same year that unveiled the doctrine of pre-emptive attack). But nobody would pretend that the last president was a gifted rhetorician.

Obama, in contrast, rose to national prominence with a single speech - a tour de force delivered at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The punctuation marks of the thrilling presidential primaries of 2007-8 were a series of Obama speeches that frequently mesmerised and rarely disappointed. As David Axelrod, chief strategist for his presidential campaign has observed: "Barack trusts [Favreau]. And Barack doesn't trust too many folks with that - the notion of surrendering that much authority over his own words."

Second, Favreau - or "Favs", as the president calls him - personified the brazen youthfulness of the Obama campaign. It sent an unambiguous message to the world that the Democrat nominee had hired a member of the Facebook generation to be his speech writer, rather than a seasoned political professional or freelancing academic. Favreau's method was that of the student having an essay crisis. He would withdraw with his laptop to a nearby Starbucks, take off his Aviator sunglasses and pound away for hours - a process he called "crashing". Even now, more soberly dressed and with a formal White House title, at the helm of a team of six writers, he sometimes disappears to a Washington coffee shop for peace, caffeine and concentration. This, it is safe to say, is not how Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton wrote speeches for George Washington - or, for that matter, Raymond Moley, FDR's legendary speech writer, or Peggy Noonan, when she prepared Ronald Reagan's homespun addresses.

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As such, Favreau has always been an unofficial mascot of the Obama phenomenon, an important anchor of the brand. It was no accident that a host of profiles of the young prodigy appeared during Obama's campaign. It did the nominee's chances no harm for it to be known that, on the night of victory in the Iowa caucuses, Favs had e-mailed his friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God." Such stories cemented the idea that Obama was the candidate for the digital era, not just the first African-American with a serious chance of winning, but the first candidate since Bobby Kennedy truly to understand the aspirations of the young.

That scrutiny came at a cost. At a party thrown for him by his parents at their home in North Reading, Massachusetts, Favreau was photographed with a cardboard effigy of Hillary Clinton, Obama's defeated rival for the Democratic nomination, apparently groping her breast. Inevitably, the picture ended up on Facebook - forcing Favreau to make a grovelling apology to the new secretary of state.

Since then, he has cultivated a markedly lower profile. The Brownlow Report in the Thirties, which first recommended professionally staffing the White House, advised presidential aides to display "a passion for anonymity". But Favreau has not gone quite that far. He still features routinely in video clips on the official White House website, usually when the presidential entourage is on tour overseas.

His love life is always of interest to the gossip columns and celebrity websites - not least when he was linked to Ali Campoverdi, a White House aide who had once posed in lingerie for

Maxim . Last June, he and fellow Obama staffer, Tommy Vietor, were photographed shirtless in a Georgetown bar, apparently playing "beer pong" (an endlessly variable beer-drenched version of table tennis, beloved of frat boys). Favreau and Vietor denied, via "friends", that they were playing the game. But that didn't stop conservative bloggers having a field day about these young pups supposedly dragging the presidency into disrepute.

Born in June 1981 in Winchester, Massachusetts, of French-Canadian descent, Favreau took a very precocious interest in politics after his Greek-American mother, Lillian, backed Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential contest. But it was as a scholarship student majoring in political science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, that his passion was truly ignited. Just as Obama's politics emerged from his experience as a community organiser, so Favreau was inspired by his volunteer work for welfare recipients in Worcester. He wondered "why I would regularly encounter single working mothers who could not afford food, housing or medical care, despite the fact that they worked over 40 hours a week. If the idea was to get people off welfare rolls and into jobs, why were the jobs failing to provide even the most basic standard of living? These questions led me to Washington."

As a student, he interned in the press office of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, where his talent was quickly recognised and he even helped ghostwrite some newspaper articles for Kerry himself. "This Favreau kid is really incredible," the senator's staff informed the internship organisers. Once he had graduated, he returned to Kerry's press office, which was now embroiled in a fight for the presidency. By the end of the (failed) campaign against Bush, Favreau had risen to become Kerry's top speech writer. But he was appalled by what he saw of politics in the 2004 race - the back-stabbing and divisiveness - and was ready to leave Washington for grad school. "After the Kerry campaign, after all the backbiting and nastiness, my idealism and enthusiasm for politics were crushed," he said. "I was grateful for the experience, but it was such a difficult experience, along with losing, that I was done. It took Barack to rekindle that." The first approach came from Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director, who told the disenchanted Favreau that they were looking for a speech writer. He met Gibbs and the new senator for Illinois in the cafeteria in the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill. Obama wanted to know what had got him into politics and what his "theory of speech writing" was. "I have no theory," answered Favreau. "But when I saw you at the

[2004] convention, you basically told a story about your life from beginning to end, and it was a story that fit with the larger American narrative. People applauded not because you wrote an applause line, but because you touched something in the party and the country that people had not touched before. Democrats haven't had that in a long time."

This did the trick, and "Favs" was soon an indispensable member of the team. The approach taken by Obama and his young speech writer is one of the most intimate deployed by a president and a close aide. Karl Rove was often described as "Bush's Brain".

Favreau is described by Obama himself as a "mind-reader", able not only to provide a beautifully written draft but also to "channel"

Obama, to mimic his turns of phrase, his cadences and his approach to anecdote and quotation. Typically, the two men will sit together for half an hour, as Obama talks and Favreau types everything that he says: what he calls the "download". He then reshapes it into a draft. Obama works on the draft. The process continues until the two men are content.

In the case of the inaugural address delivered on 20 January 2009, Favreau worked on a draft in Starbucks with help from three colleagues, Ben Rhodes, Adam Frankel and Sarah Hurwitz (the latter two assisted with the now-famous ending of the speech, which alluded to a message sent to the American people by Washington when the outcome of their revolution was in doubt: "Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it"). Over the weekend of 10 and 11 January, Obama sequestered himself in the Hay-Adams Hotel and redrafted the text to his satisfaction.

The fruits of the collaboration between the president and Favreau have often been sensational. Favreau is credited with Obama's most famous slogan - "Yes We Can". There have been other such encapsulations that have made their way into the political bloodstream, such as the president's call in this year's State of the Union address for a "Sputnik moment" - a technological leap forward. Much more remarkable, however, has been the high quality of Obama's oratory in general, his ability to soar as a rhetorician, deploying political arts that are traditional and rooted in the classics rather than the television and internet age.

Both he and Favreau dislike sound bites and the "laundry list" convention of the modern political speech - a long inventory of achievements - and spend much more time on "narrative" (the story a speech tells) and "naming" (the explicit identification of problems or challenges).

In the extraordinary speech written by Favreau for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa in November 2007, for instance, Obama declared that "the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do in this election. That's why not answering questions because we are afraid our answers won't be popular, just won't do.

That's why telling the American people what we think they want to hear instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won't do. Triangulating and poll-driven positions because we're worried about what Mitt [Romney] or Rudy [Giuliani] might say about us just won't do." This was a lethal attack upon the focus-group-obsessed Clintons, but delivered with a grace and impact that persuaded many for the first time that Obama might just be the man.

Favreau made a similar contribution to the speech on race delivered in March 2008, after the disclosure of the anti-American ranting of Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," the embattled candidate said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." But, Obama continued, "the profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made." Again, this is a speech that will be anthologised and studied long after the detail of the legislation that Obama enacted as president is forgotten.

Of course, speeches on the campaign trail are quite different to speeches in office. In early 2008, Hillary Clinton repeated an adage made famous by Mario Cuomo: "You campaign with poetry, but you govern with prose" - Obama's speeches were poetic, but running the country could not be achieved by pretty rhetoric alone. To an extent, her prophecy has come true: in his first year as president, Obama made 411 "speeches, comments and remarks" (according to the official categorisation), almost all of them churned out by Favreau's office. Yet few of them had much, if any, direct impact upon the president's fortunes. The fight to secure healthcare reform, the midterm elections, the ongoing battle to secure sustainable economic recovery and the December tax cuts: these are what really mattered, big, crunchy political struggles.

Before his death, Sorensen made an acute critique of Obama's governing style. "I think that [Obama is] a remarkable speaker,"

Sorensen said, "but his speeches are still largely in campaign mode." Ouch.

Does that mean Favreau is now a marginal figure? Hardly. As he struggles to find a new idiom and a fresh language with which to reconnect with Middle America, and to reach out to Republicans in Congress, Obama will turn first to his trusted wordsmith - now more than ever, in fact. As he seeks imaginative ways of understanding and explaining the Arab uprisings, he will broaden his circle of advisors, as all presidents do - but always return to his "mind-reader" for help with the words. It is in the president's nature so to do.

Look at the deftness with which Obama's State of the Union address this year presented the horrific Tucson massacre - in which 19 people were shot - as evidence not of the divisions within America, but of the urgent need to unify. "Amid all the noise and passions and rancour of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater - something more consequential than party or political preference. We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled."

Pure Favreau. Pure Obama. An indivisible team with a lot more to do, and one more election to win. Will they prevail? Too early to say. But I bet you that, in his head at least, in moments of caffeine-soaked exhaustion late at night, Favs is already working on the biggest speech of them all, the crowning achievement: the second inaugural address. Can he write it? Yes He Can.

Originally published in the June 2011 issue of British GQ .

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Obama’s former speechwriter reflects on time White House.

Imagine being the speechwriter for the most powerful person in the world. That was  Cody Keenan ’s job. He was the chief speech writer for former President Barack Obama during some of the most pivotal times in modern American history.

Keenan looks back on those days in his new book, “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America.” It takes readers behind the scenes of the Obama administration for ten days in June 2015, after a horrific shooting at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Keenan about his new book.

Cody Keenan   was the Senior Advisor and Director of Speechwriting for former President Barack Obama. He is the author of the new book “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America”

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Obama Speechwriter Cody Keenan Writing Memoir ‘Grace’

By Brent Lang

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The speechwriter who helped President Barack Obama pen his stirring address memorializing the victims of the Charleston church massacre will release a memoir about his time working in the White House.

Sugar23 Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media, has acquired “Grace: A President, His Speechwriter, and Ten Days in the Battle for America” by Cody Keenan, one of the 44th president’s chief wordsmiths. The title is a reference to Obama’s eulogy for the victims of that mass shoot. He closed his remarks at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by leading a chorus of “Amazing Grace.”

“Grace” will be released in 2022. Keenan’s book will focus on 10 days in Obama’s presidency, during which he helped write addresses for the president dealing with everything from a public debate on the Confederate flag to Supreme Court rulings on healthcare and gay marriage. The publisher says the book will chronicle “a whirlwind of dramatic moments too implausible for a full season of ‘The West Wing.'”

“’Grace’ started with a string of tweets on the second anniversary of that week,” Keenan said. “At first, all I wanted to do was tell a story to show what this country can be at its best and what writing with Barack Obama is actually like when the stakes are highest. The years since have only added context to how those 10 days help make sense of the broader sweep of American progress and backlash, this clash of two fundamentally opposing visions of America — and this feels like the right time to finally sit down and write it all up.”

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Keenan worked with Obama since 2007, rising from a campaign intern in Chicago to his chief speechwriter at the White House. He continued to work with Obama after his presidency concluded. Sugar23 is a media company launched by veteran manager and producer Michael Sugar. The company founder’s many credits include “Spotlight” and “The Knick.”

“’Grace’ offers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of President Obama, and it introduces another prolific American thinker to the world, Cody himself,” said Sugar. “To be in proximity to Cody and to help publish ‘Grace’ is one of the true honors of my life to date.”

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Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan set to publish memoir 'Grace' in 2022

NEW YORK — The White House speechwriter who helped President Barack Obama work on his response to the Charleston church massacre in June 2015 has a book deal. Cody Keenan’s memoir is set around the time a white supremacist murdered nine Black parishioners in South Carolina.

“Grace: A President, His Speechwriter, and Ten Days in the Battle for America” will be published in fall 2022, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media announced Tuesday.

Keenan will note that the Charleston tragedy was soon followed by other historic events. Within days, protesters called for the removal of the Confederate flag that had long flown on Statehouse grounds in Columbia, a demand met that July. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced two historic decisions, ruling that same-sex marriage was protected under the Constitution and upholding much of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The book’s title refers to a theme of Obama’s response to Charleston and to one of the most emotional moments of his presidency: his singing of “Amazing Grace” during his eulogy at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for one of the victims, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

″'Grace’ started with a string of tweets on the second anniversary of that week,” Keenan said in a statement issued through the Houghton Mifflin imprint Sugar23 Books.

Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist

“At first, all I wanted to do was tell a story to show what this country can be at its best and what writing with Barack Obama is actually like when the stakes are highest. The years since have only added context to how those 10 days help make sense of the broader sweep of American progress and backlash, this clash of two fundamentally opposing visions of America — and this feels like the right time to finally sit down and write it all up.”

Keenan began working with Obama in 2007, when the future president was a first-term senator from Illinois. Keenan served as deputy director of speechwriting during Obama’s first term and as director during Obama’s second term. Other presidential addresses he worked on included Obama’s eulogy for Sen. Edward Kennedy in 2009 and his 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers in Selma, Alabama, beat and teargassed civil rights marchers.

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Former Obama Speechwriter Recounts the Real Story Behind 'Amazing Grace' Speech: 'Then He Began to Sing'

Speechwriter Cody Keenan writes in his new book that the now-iconic eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney — delivered after a 2015 church massacre — was straight from the president's heart

While Barack Obama had a seasoned group of speechwriters helping him come up with the words to mark both celebratory and solemn occasions, the former president has well-known oratorial skills of his own. One of his most iconic speeches as president, in fact, was apparently all him.

That's according to Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan, who writes in his new book, Grac e, that the now-iconic eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney — delivered in the wake of the 2015 massacre that killed nine at the Emanuel AME Church — was straight from the president's heart.

As Keenan writes in his book, which was excerpted in Vanity Fair , the eulogy marked the 14th time President Obama would address the nation following a mass shooting. As such, the president and his staff weren't sure how much they could offer a grieving community.

"The next time this happens, I don't want to speak," Keenan recalls Obama telling him after Senate Republicans blocked a vote on universal background checks following the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

So Keenan had his work cut out for him when it came to delivering a eulogy for a beloved South Carolina reverend — also a state senator — who was gunned down in an allegedly racially motivated spree.

In a meeting ahead of the speech, Keenan writes that Obama determined he wanted to focus on "the concept of grace."

"But let's use it as a challenge," Obama continued, Keenan writes. "I don't want to congratulate ourselves too much when we as Americans just allow this s--- to keep happening. Talk about guns. Talk about the flag. Talk about the way hundreds of years of racial subjugation and segregation still shape the present. But leave room for the possibility of progress. Leave room for grace."

Keenan got to work, writing a roughly 2,000-word, four-page speech overnight. The next day, he heard from the president.

Obama, Keenan writes, had heavier edits than usual. Two of the four pages had been entirely stricken, with the other two full of handwritten notes.

"You gave me the scaffolding I needed to build something here," Obama told him. "You'll recognize your work in what I wrote."

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The next day, the team was en route to Charleston for Obama to deliver the eulogy. After one more round of edits aboard Air Force One, the final version of speech was emailed to staff onsite, loaded onto a teleprompter and printed for the podium.

But there would be more revisions — these, however, would come from the president himself, while speaking onstage.

"You know, if it feels right, I might sing it," Keenan recounts Obama saying as he made his way off the plane that day.

What happened next was moving and historic.

Onstage at Charleston's TD Arena, Obama simultaneously memorialized the fallen pastor and called for Americans to examine race relations and gun control laws, using the concept of grace as a thread throughout the lengthy speech.

Near the end of the 39-minute speech, he got to the heart of the text.

"If we can tap that grace, everything can change," Obama said.

"Amazing grace," he continued, repeating the words once more for emphasis: "Amazing grace."

And then, he launched into the hymn, singing the opening lines of "Amazing Grace" before the entire congregation joined in.

"By the time Obama hit 'how sweet the sound,' the whole arena was singing with him," Keenan writes. "The organist jumped in at 'a wretch like me.' The drummer tapped his cymbals with a light touch, but so fast his sticks became a blur, creating a sustained swell of 'tsssssssssss.' The horn section began to blow. The guitarist uncorked a blues riff. Obama's bet, that he wouldn't be left alone, had paid off."

As Keenan recounts, the unrehearsed and unplanned moment was met with shock by White House staffers, who, "unaware of the plan Obama had revealed on Marine One, shouted at each other, 'Is he singing ?' then ran to the entrance to the arena floor."

It wasn't Obama's first time singing onstage, as the former president made headlines when singing the opening bars of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a fundraiser.

"But to sing this song, on this occasion, was something different altogether ... this was a much bigger stage," Keenan writes.

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How to Write a Great Speech, According to the Obamas’ Speechwriter

By Liam Freeman

It was the summer of 1998, the end of her junior year of college, when Sarah Hurwitz fell in love with the art form of writing the perfect speech, having scored an internship at the White House in Vice President Al Gore’s speechwriting office. “Every day, his staff used words to move, inspire, comfort, and empower people,” she recalls. “I still can’t imagine a better way to spend a career.”

And what an extraordinary career Hurwitz’s has been. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she became the chief speechwriter for Hillary Rodham Clinton on her 2008 presidential campaign. Eventually, she returned to the White House, serving as the head speechwriter for first lady Michelle Obama and as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.

Here, Hurwitz shares 11 nuggets of speechwriting wisdom that she’s garnered along the way so that you can shine at your next public address, whether that be a televised political debate, a work presentation, or a toast at your best friend’s wedding.

1. Channel the person who is speaking

The true art of speechwriting isn’t scripting someone—it’s channeling their voice. My first step when writing a speech for Mrs. Obama would be to sit down with her and ask, “What would you like to say?” She knows who she is, and she always knows what she wants to say. She’s also a naturally gifted speaker and writer, so I’d transcribe as she talked, forming the basis of the first draft.

2. Research and understand your audience

Who are you talking to? What are they concerned about? Why are you speaking to them? How well do they know you? What’s the venue? If Mrs. Obama was speaking at a university, for example, it was important to understand the history and student body of that university. If you’re giving a toast at your best friend’s wedding, you need to know if you can tell a story that’s a bit edgy or if their family will get offended.

3. Know that structure is destiny

If you have a bad structure, you can’t have a good speech. Every paragraph should flow logically from one to the next. When I’m trying to figure out the structure of a speech, I’ll often print it out and cut it up with scissors so I can move parts around. It’s only then that I realize the order is wrong or I see that I’m repeating myself or I notice that certain passages could be combined.

4. Seek multiple opinions  

It’s really important to ask other people to look at your speech—as many as possible, especially if you’re speaking to a community that you don’t know well. You need to find someone from that audience who understands its cultural sensitivities and norms so you speak in a way that inspires people rather than causing offense.

5. Throw the rulebook out of the window

Writing to be read and writing to be heard are two very different skills. Spoken language doesn’t need to conform to grammar and punctuation norms. I often use ellipses instead of commas to indicate pauses because they’re easier to see. It’s fine to space things weirdly on the page or add notations if it helps you—all that matters is how the words sound coming out of your mouth.

With that in mind, you should edit out loud. Don’t just sit looking at your computer screen—print the speech out, practice delivering it, and edit as you go.

By Tatiana Dias

By Kiana Murden

6. Listening is the key to great speaking

There were hundreds of occasions when Mrs. Obama gave me feedback that ultimately influenced how I write. My drafts would be covered in her handwritten edits: “Are the transitions seamless? Is the structure logical? Is this language the most vivid and moving that it can be?” And I would learn from those edits.

As I write, I hear her voice in my head saying things like, “This part is getting bogged down in the weeds,“ “we’re missing the beating heart,” “we’re missing the real human side of this issue.” Hone your ability to identify the weakest parts that aren’t working.

7. Speak like you usually do

It’s fine to ask yourself, “What will make me sound smart or powerful or funny?’”or “What does the audience want to hear?” But your first question should really be, “What is the deepest, most important truth that I can tell at this particular moment?” All too often people focus on how they’re going to say something rather than on what they’re actually going to say.

Then, when they give a speech, they often take on an overly formal and stiff giving-a-speech voice or they slip into their professional jargon and use words that no one understands. If something feels unnatural or awkward when you say it, go back and rewrite it until it sounds like you.

8. Show, don’t tell

This may sound like a basic writing tip, but it’s rare that people execute this well. If you’re bored during a speech, it’s probably because the person is telling not showing. Mrs. Obama didn’t start her 2016 Democratic National Convention speech by saying: “On my daughter’s first day of school at the White House, I was nervous, afraid, and anxious.” She said: “I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just 7 and 10 years old, pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns. And I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, What have we done?” It’s such a searing image. Anytime you find yourself using a lot of adjectives, stop, step back, and think about painting a picture for people instead.

9. Don’t let technology get in the way

We’re living in the age of Zoom, and many people are delivering speeches virtually, which creates a whole new set of challenges. The audience often has their cameras turned off, or even if they’re on, there’s a disconnect. For this reason, I’d advise against a lecture-style format on Zoom. Instead, opt for interview style—give your host a set of questions to ask you so you can convey your message. This back-and-forth is more engaging via video calls.

10. Watch the clock

People are distracted today and have limited bandwidth to listen to what you are saying, so it’s really important to focus your message. Do you want them to feel reassured, courageous, fired up? Whatever the emotion, really think about that as you’re writing your speech. As for the length, it depends on your venue. If you’re doing a toast at your best friend’s wedding, keep it to five minutes (it’s not your wedding!), and for a keynote speech, no longer than 20 minutes.

11. Consider the format

Unless you have an incredible memory, don’t put yourself under added pressure by trying to learn your speech by heart. That said, what you read from matters. Some speakers are most comfortable with their speech when it’s written out verbatim. For others, reading a speech word for word feels awkward. Try experimenting with different formats, such as bullet points or cue cards. If you’re printing your remarks out on paper, keep the text on the top two-thirds of the page—otherwise, as you get to the bottom of the page, you’ll have to bend your neck to look down, and you’ll end up swallowing your words and breaking eye contact with your audience.  *Sarah Hurwitz ’s debut book, Here All Along (Penguin Random House), is out now.

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The story of speechwriting for President Obama

Article highlights.

Want some tips on effective communication? Then look no further than former Obama speechwriter and bestselling author @DavidLitt

How did a junior campaign volunteer become a speechwriter for @BarackObama in the White House? @DavidLitt tells us his story

A mix of the speaker, the audience and the moment is what makes a speech great, says former @BarackObama speechwriter @DavidLitt

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Who's “holding the pen”?

The answer, increasingly so during President Obama's time in the White House, was David Litt, a former campaign volunteer who started working in the White House with only minimal experience as a speechwriter. A few years later and he was meeting with the president and tasked with drafting many of his most high-profile statements and addresses.

It's quite a story, and one that Litt expertly captures in his bestselling memoir , which combines laugh out loud humour with deep insight about the art of wordsmithing for a nation's chief executive. Fiercely modest and self-deprecating - both in person and in his book - Litt freely admits that he was somewhat thrown in at the deep end. “My experience in the White House was pretty different to other speechwriting jobs because of the sheer amount of time pressure,” he explains.

“I came in with some experience of writing speeches - not a tonne - in fact, I hadn't had a lot of experience doing anything. I certainly hadn't experienced writing speeches to incredibly tight deadlines under the level of scrutiny that an American president operates by. This was probably the biggest challenge and the area where I had to do the most learning on the job - and I had to do a lot of learning very quickly.”

Why speeches still matter

Leaders around the world have all manner of communications options to choose from. From tweets to YouTube videos, television clips to Snapchat, the landscape in front of them brims with opportunities to promote their message. With this in mind, it seems pertinent to ask whether speeches still matter. Are they as important as in previous generations? Litt is in no doubt.

“I think speeches still matter, and I think they'll continue to matter,” he says firmly. “The difference is that lots of other communication methods matter as well. So whether you're a politician or a CEO or anyone else, you're no longer just picking the message you want to send but also the medium by which you send it. This choice matters a lot more than it used to, especially as there are now so many options to choose from.”

He goes on to say that it is now incumbent on leaders - and their communications team - to know what works best and where. “Something might be ideal as an online video, for example, whereas others would make more sense as a speech or a tweet,” he says. “Knowing how to use different platforms to get your message across is something I think communications teams have to consider in a way that they didn't ten years ago.”

So, in his opinion, what makes for a great speech? Is it down to the oratory - such as President Obama's 2015 speech in Selma - or President Reagan's famous “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of D-Day? Or maybe it is down to capturing the moment, such as Bobby Kennedy's iconic speech in response to the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King? Litt says it is down to a mix of different factors.

“Usually it's about the combination of the speaker, the audience and the moment,” he says. “There are definitely rules that can make a speech more effective and there are lots of potential mistakes that can make a speech less effective, but the speaker is only one element of the overall picture.”

Fortunately for Litt and his colleagues in the speechwriting shop, their boss was not only an accomplished writer himself - check out his edits to a Jon Favreau -penned healthcare speech early in his tenure - but also a storyteller par excellence. “Part of our job as speechwriters was to think about how to tell stories,” he recalls. “The stories in the book are obviously very different to what President Obama would have used in his speeches - for the most part - but that skill of storytelling and that experience of storytelling is something I think I have tried to use and take from one arena to another.”

Life inside the real West Wing

Any visitor to Washington, DC - first time or otherwise - normally makes a beeline for the White House at some stage. But you don't get very far. The perimeter, extended since a succession of fence-jumpers in recent years, not to mention the patrolling Secret Service agents, keeps tourists and passers-by from getting too close.

So what is it really like to work there? To be able to flash your security pass and stroll through security checks? To work a matter of feet away from the President of the United States? Litt admits that his time there was the experience of a lifetime, one that has left him with a rich abundance of memories great and small.

“One thing I remember over and over is watching President Obama walk into a room filled not with White House staff but with Americans, whether they were people visiting Washington or if he was on the road,” he says. “To be part of that moment when you know that everyone in the room is never going to forget that experience as long as they live, and to play a tiny part in making that happen, was pretty special.”

He also has some advice gleaned from his time there, useful for any new joiner to an organisation, not just the White House. “Don't try and reinvent the wheel,” he says. “When you're coming into an organisation which already has systems in place and is doing well, the tendency is to try and demonstrate how special you are. But first you need to demonstrate that you can keep pace, and only then do you get the opportunity to add something - that took me a little while to learn.”

He goes on to say that it is vital to know what your job really is, not just what your job title says. “Essentially, you need to know how you can make the lives of the people around you easier, and make sure you keep executing on that. And also, for anyone about to start work in the White House, there is a 30% discount in the cafeteria buffet from 2pm - so make sure you eat a big breakfast.”

“Anything is possible”

Today, Litt can be found working at the online comedy company Funny or Die , particularly appropriate given his skill for humour (among his roles at the White House was “holding the pen” for several of President Obama's speeches to the White House Correspondents' Dinner ).

It is clear, though, that he remains fully engaged in politics and gives the impression of itching to step back into the arena. “Like millions of Americans, the one thing that has been hammered home over the last year is that you never get to take a complete break from being a citizen trying to improve your country,” he points out. “If you don't do it, it's not like someone else can be counted on to step in.”

And while he is clear that he wouldn't want to go back to full-time speechwriting, he has a deep reservoir of knowledge ready to be to be tapped into. So, what tips would he share with anyone looking to follow in his footsteps? “In a purely practical sense, if you can transcribe a conversation and use someone's language verbatim as much as possible, then use that as a building block,” he says.

“In the private sector, this is something I was able to do and it is very useful. I would also say - be absolutely sure what the one big idea is that you want the audience to take away. A lot of speeches seem scattered, and that's because they are scattered. Even impressive, important people don't have a clear idea all the time of the one thing they want the audience to remember.”

And did he, like esteemed American biographer Robert Caro, “know his last line” and write towards it? “Speeches are a little different,” he concludes. “You should know what the headline is for someone writing about the speech - even if that person isn't actually a newspaper reporter. You should always have this in mind.”

FURTHER READING

• From Washington to The West Wing. Eli Attie tells us about life as Vice President Gore's chief speechwriter, his subsequent role on The West Wing and the secrets of effective political communication
• Life in the foxhole: the new rules of the communications game.  Few know how to navigate the terrain of government communications better than Obama White House veteran  Eric Schultz . Speaking to the Gov Actually podcast, he tells us about getting the message out - DC style…
• Googling better government.  After helping rescue healthcare.gov,  Mikey Dickerson  is now focusing on the US federal government's wider deployment of digital technology. He takes time out to tell Danny Werfel why it's no more business as usual
• To the Max.   Helping US policymakers to be more effective is the task facing  Max Stier  and his colleagues at the Partnership for Public Service. He tells us about transforming federal government inspiring a new generation
• Winds of change.   Few understand the mechanics of US elections better than  Matthew Dowd . A veteran of both sides of the campaign trail, he tells us about his experiences and why change is coming to America…
• Beltway and beyond.   A former senior advisor to two US presidents,  Elliott Abrams'  view on public impact has been shaped by decades of public service. He shares his perspective on how governments can achieve more
• DC despatch.  Kate Josephs  reflects on her experiences driving performance improvement in the British and US governments

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Obama inauguration: Words of history ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks

When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history.

Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is one of the youngest chief speechwriters on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it.

For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones.

It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admitting to feeling "intimidated" when he read them. It is also that, as he begins his term with the US in an economic crisis and two wars, he knows he needs to kick start his presidency with a soaring rhetoric that both moves and motivates the American people.

The tone of the speech could be decisive in determining how the public responds to his first 100 days, as Franklin Roosevelt's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" helped to determine his.

Obama aides have let it be known that a key theme will be restoring responsibility - both in terms of accountability in Washington and the responsibility of ordinary people to get involved. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, talks of a "culture of responsibility" that would "not just be asked of the American people; its leaders must also lead by example."

In composing the high notes of the speech, Obama has leant on Favreau, whom he discovered almost by chance four years ago when the younger man was working on John Kerry's failed presidential bid. "Favs" has since studied Obama's speech patterns and cadences with the intensity of a stalker. He memorised the 2004 speech to the Democratic national convention which first brought Obama into the limelight. He is said to carry Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, wherever he goes. As a result, last November when Favreau sat down to write the first draft of the inaugural address, he could conjure up his master's voice as if an accomplished impersonator.

That skill had been put to almost daily use in the 18 months of brutal campaigning on the presidential trail. Favreau would be up most nights until 3am, honing the next day's stump speeches in a caffeine haze of espressos and Red Bull energy drinks, taking breaks to play the video game Rock Band. He coined a phrase for this late-night deadline surfing: "crashing".

He crashed his way through all Obama's most memorable speeches. He wrote the draft of one that helped to turn Iowa for Obama while closeted in a coffee shop in Des Moines. For the presidential election, he wrote two speeches: one for a victory, one for defeat. When the result came through, he emailed his best friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God."

The tension between such youthful outbursts and his onerous role has sometimes cost the 27-year-old. In December, pictures of him and a friend mocking a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton at a party, Favreau's hand on her breast, were posted on Facebook to his huge embarrassment.

Obama is an accomplished writer in his own right, and the process of drafting with his mind reader is collaborative. The inaugural speech has shuttled between them four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer.

Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft. The end result will be uttered on the steps of the Capitol.

Obama's mind reader has crashed his way through yet another deadline.

• Obama inauguration

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Ex-Obama Speechwriter Jon Favreau Explains Origins of the Stump Speech

President Obama's ex-speechwriter talks about one of the campaign basics.

— -- One man who knows a thing or two about stump speeches is Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama.

Favreau, 35, got his start working for John Kerry's failed presidential campaign in 2004 and met Obama during the Democratic National Convention that year. Favreau went on to work for Obama when he was a senator and played a pivotal role in his 2008 election and the first years of his administration.

The stump speech is a campaign tool that Favreau — and every other presidential speechwriter — knows well.

"These speeches are their argument for why they should be president," he said.

Part of the beauty of a stump speech is that it "can be reused again and again, anytime, anywhere," Favreau said.

Learn more about the utility and history of the stump speech in the video above.

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What Obama's 27-Year-Old Speechwriter Learned From George W. Bush

On the night of the New Hampshire primary in January, a young man of twenty-six stood at the back of the crowd in the Nashua High gym and watched his boss deliver a speech conceding defeat to Hillary Clinton in the day's election. And even though his boss, Barack Obama, had lost, Jon Favreau couldn't help but smile. Obama had won big in Iowa just five days before, sending the Clinton campaign into a death spiral, but Hillary's surprising comeback meant that any notions of putting her away quickly were now dispelled. This would be a long, bloody fight for the nomination. Yet they all smiled. Had there ever been a more triumphal concession speech, ever?

And then the senator got to the emotional heart of the speech, the part when he recognized that nothing this big is easy. "For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can...."

Speeches claiming victory are never as interesting as those conceding defeat, because people are never more interesting than when they lose. In any case, neither Favreau nor his cowriters Adam Frankel and Ben Rhodes had been expecting to have to concede anything that evening. But things change quickly. After consulting with Obama for about half an hour -- Obama talked, Favreau typed notes -- they decided to reprise the hopeful refrain of "Yes, we can...." which had been the slogan of Obama's 2004 senate race in Illinois. And at that moment, a mere presidential campaign was transformed into a movement, coalesced around three simple words.

He is too busy to read much. "I'm embarrassed to say that since college" -- Favreau graduated from Holy Cross in 2003 -- "I've been so busy speechwriting for Kerry and then Barack that I haven't been reading all the good literary stuff I used to read back in the day." As for speechcraft, while he says the speeches of Bobby Kennedy are his favorites, he also says Peggy Noonan is his all-time favorite speechwriter. He cites Ronald Reagan's Pointe du Hoc speech marking the fortieth anniversary of D-day as his favorite of hers, and in Noonan's sugary epic, you can hear the faint echo of Barack Obama talking about his grandfather.

Favreau also says he has greatly admired the writing of Michael Gerson, who was President Bush's main speechwriter for five years, especially his address to the joint session of Congress after the September 11 attacks. Gerson returns the admiration. One night in New Hampshire, he sought out Favreau at a campaign rally and introduced himself to talk shop.

And Favreau is right, Gerson's speech for Bush that September 20 was one of the great speeches in American history. But it must be noted here that with that speech the discord between speech and speaker has never been more pronounced, for we have come to know that Gerson's boss never fully grasped the power of words. With an exalting script, Gerson could make George W. Bush sound like Winston Churchill for an hour. But it is Jon Favreau's task and his gift that he is able to make his boss -- a fellow who has been known to write a sentence or two on his own -- sound like Barack Obama.

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Barack Obama gave his speechwriter career advice that set him on the path to becoming a LinkedIn VP. Now he’s using that to identify the framework for a long-lasting career

When Aneesh Raman was working as Barack Obama’s speechwriter there was one piece of career advice the president would often share that stuck with the former CNN war correspondent: “Worry about what you want to do, not who you want to be.”

You only have to glance at Obama’s career to see his motto in action. The first African American president in U.S. history worked in community organizing and law for decades before being inaugurated in 2009. 

“He wanted to build communities in a different way,” Raman told CNBC Make It , “and it led him on his path that led to this moment where he became president.”

It’s why instead of focusing on your dream title, Raman recommends thinking about the impact you want to make through your work first and then honing the skills you’ll need to get there. 

That advice has taken Raman from writing Obama’s speeches from 2011 to 2013 to partnering with NGOs as Facebook’s head of economic impact to coauthoring several books.

Now he’s heading up LinkedIn’s Opportunity Project, which is focused on building a more dynamic and equitable global labor market, as a vice president.

Your twenties and thirties are for learning skills

Using Obama’s mantra for career success, Raman advises those in their twenties and early thirties to forgo titles completely to focus on skills development, before specializing in their mid-thirties. 

This framework is the “safest” way to think of a long-lasting career, Raman said, “because you can control all of those levers, versus job title. You might want to be a VP of something at somewhere, but you can’t control any of that, and that job might not even exist in 20 years.”

And don’t worry if your career path looks all over the place on paper. Raman recommends embracing a “squiggly line” approach—where your career isn’t quite linear—as long as it has a connective thread. 

“My job titles as a career don’t make sense,” he said, “but my skills across the board are storytelling and coalition building” around economic opportunity.

Here’s his framework for long-lasting career success: 

Ages 20 to 35

This is the time to find out what you’re excited about, what you’re good at, and what you want to get better at, Raman said. Evaluate whether certain jobs or employers will help you acquire the skills you need.

Ages 35 to 45 

Now it’s time to use your unique skill set and apply it to an issue of expertise, whether that’s in a specific field like health care or something broader like Raman’s focus on “economic opportunity.”

Only after hitting 45 years old should you be thinking about what kind of impact you want to make on your organization and on the world, Raman said. After all, Obama was 47 when he took the presidency, and he was one of the nation’s youngest leaders.

‘Worry about learning, not your next job’

Obama’s not the first leader to tell aspirational people to stop worrying about their next job title. Shaid Shah, the global president of the $50 billion global food and pet care giant Mars Food & Nutrition, previously told Fortune that “ career success is more than just hierarchy .” 

“It’s about acquiring the experiences that you need to realize your ambition, to realize what makes you happy, what makes you tick, what inspires you to get out of bed every day,” explained Shah, who steadily climbed the ranks from sales director to the helm of Mars Food & Nutrition department.

In doing that, you’re more likely to choose roles that move you closer to where you ultimately want to be and attain long-term success, instead of taking what just looks like a promotion on paper now.

Similarly, Pret’s CEO told Fortune that looking forward with his feet firmly on the ground, instead of dreaming too big with his head in the clouds, is what set him up for success.

“I’ve watched people that have been so fixated on the next role that they really take their eye off the job they’re doing,” Pano Christou said. “My philosophy has always been if you do a great job, people will notice you.”

By focusing on excelling in his current job and being the best within his cohort, the promotions ( from shop floor manager to CEO ) swiftly followed. “If you work hard and put your head down, things can happen.”

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Gay actor's speech back on at Pennsylvania school after cancellation over his 'lifestyle'

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — A gay actor’s speech that was canceled over his “lifestyle” is back on at a Pennsylvania school after residents spoke out.

The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to allow children’s book author Maulik Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. The board voted after hearing from residents, including more than a dozen students.

The board on April 15 unanimously  canceled Pancholy’s talk  after a board member cited concerns about what he described as the actor’s activism and “lifestyle.” Some board members also noted the district enacted a policy about not hosting overtly political events after it was criticized for hosting a Donald Trump rally during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Some community members said the cancellation was ill-advised and sent a hurtful message, especially to the LGBTQ+ community, and Superintendent Mark Blanchard and other district leaders  sent a letter  to the board, faculty and staff asserting that Pancholy’s speech should have been allowed.

The education officials said they were not given “a real opportunity” by the board to answer questions or provide guidance about the event, which they said was aimed at reinforcing the importance of treating all people equally.

Pancholy, 48, is an award-winning actor, including for his roles on the television shows “30 Rock” and “Weeds,” and as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney animated series, “Phineas & Ferb.” He also has written children’s books and in 2014 was named by then-President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, where he co-founded a campaign to combat AAPI bullying.

Pancholy’s appearance was scheduled by the school’s leadership team, which each year selects an author to present a “unique educational experience for students,” according to the district.

At the April 15 meeting, school board members said they did not know what Pancholy would talk about, but one member said he didn’t “want to run the risk” of what it might entail.

“If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist,” Bud Shaffner said,  according to Pennlive.  “He is proud of his lifestyle, and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students, at any age.”

The Associated Press sent an email to Pancholy’s publicists Thursday seeking comment on the board’s decision to reverse itself.

In a statement  posted on social media after the initial board vote, Pancholy had said that as a middle school student he never saw himself represented in stories, and that books featuring South Asian-American or LGBTQ+ characters “didn’t exist.” When he started writing his own novels years later, he was still hard-pressed to find those stories, he said.

“It’s why I wrote my books in the first place,” Pancholy wrote. “Because representation matters.”

Pancholy said his school visits are meant “to let all young people know that they’re seen. To let them know that they matter.”

The Associated Press

Biden-Trump Gaffe Tracker: Biden Repeats Disputed Claim He Was Arrested During Civil Rights-Era Protests

A s concerns have grown that former President Donald Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 81, are too old to serve another term amid repeated rhetorical missteps since announcing their campaigns, here’s a list of the most notable recent gaffes.

Biden (April 26) Biden repeated a heavily disputed claim that he was arrested while standing on the porch with a Black family who was moving in to Lynnfield, Delaware as it was being desegregated and protesters gathered outside, recalling to radio host Howard Stern he was “brought back” home by the police—previous fact-checks by multiple outlets into Biden’s oft-repeated claim have unearthed newspaper articles from 1959 reporting arrests at protests outside two homes of Black families near where Biden was living at the time, but there’s no evidence Biden was among those taken into custody.

Biden (April 24) Biden appeared to read out loud a direction from his teleprompter to “pause” during a speech before the North America Building Trade Union: “Imagine what we can do next, four more years, pause,” Biden said, before the crowd began chanting “four more years,” a frequent Biden rallying cry.

Biden (April 17) Biden twice suggested during a visit to a Scranton, Penn., World War II memorial honoring his uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, that his body may have been eaten—by people, saying, “[H]e got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of the New Guinea.” But the official military account of his death states that his Air Force plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of New Guinea and that neither his body nor the aircraft were recovered.

Biden (April 16) In an interview with a local CBS affiliate in Birmingham, Ala., Biden said, “I made it clear to the Israelis—don’t move on Haifa”—likely referring to Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip city where millions of Palestinians have taken refuge and the U.S. has warned Israel not to carry out a potentially devastating invasion. Haifa is a major port city in northern Israel.

Trump (March 25) Trump also claimed the “top person” at the NYSE was “very, very upset” and “mortified” that TMTG did not trade on the exchange, and claimed “he said ‘I’m losing business because of New York, because people don’t want to be in New York and they don’t want to go into the New York Stock Exchange,’” but, it is unclear who Trump is referring to, as both the exchange’s president, Lynn Martin, and board chair Sharon Bowen, are women.

Trump (March 25) At a press conference following a hearing for his hush money trial , Trump claimed that Trump Media & Technology Company, which owns his Truth Social network and went public after a deal was approved last week, decided not to trade on the New York Stock Exchange due to his ongoing court cases: “the New York Stock Exchange wants to have us badly, and I told them ’we can’t do the New York Stock Exchange, you’re treated too badly in New York,’” but Trump Media began trading on Tuesday on the Nasdaq stock exchange, which is also located in New York.

Trump (March 16): At a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Trump again mistakenly referred to former President Barack Obama, this time possibly confusing himself with Obama, though it remains unclear what he might have meant: “Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama, has anyone ever heard of him?” Trump asked the crowd, before adding, “every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed.”

Trump (March 9): At a speech in Rome, Georgia, Trump claimed “the polls are rigged” while discussing his appeal to suburban housewives, before abruptly backtracking and saying “disregard that last statement, I love the polls so much.”

Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): the president misidentified Laken Riley , the student murdered on the University of Georgia campus, calling her “Lanken,” while holding up a pin with her name on it.

Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): the president briefly said the 2021 Capitol riot took place on July 6, before correcting himself and saying “January 6.”

Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): after speaking about capping prescription drug prices, Biden made an off-the-cuff remark and invited Congress to fly with him and see lower prices for their medications in “Toronto, Berlin, Moscow—I mean, excuse me—well, even Moscow, probably.”

Trump (March 2): Trump seemed to confuse former President Barack Obama with President Joe Biden—alleging during a rally in Virginia Putin has “so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” marking at least the eighth time in recent months it’s happened.

Trump (Feb. 24): In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump appeared to endorse Biden, telling the audience he agrees with Russian President Vladimir Putin in preferring Biden over Trump.

Trump (Feb. 24): In the same CPAC speech, Trump appeared to forget the name of his wife, Melania Trump, responding to loud applause in the crowd by saying “Mercedes, that’s pretty good!”—though his campaign claimed it was a reference to Mercedes Schlapp, a political commentator and the wife of American Conservative Union (CPAC organizer) chair Matt Schlapp, who he mentioned later in the speech.

Biden (Feb. 8): Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as “the president of Mexico,” ironically during a press conference where he contested a scathing report by Special Counsel Robert Hur that depicted Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden (Feb. 7): Biden referred to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the late German leader Helmut Kohl twice while speaking at campaign events in New York, days after confusing French President Emmanuel Macron with his late predecessor Francois Mitterrand during a speech in Las Vegas.

Trump (Jan. 19): Trump confused his sole remaining opponent in the GOP primary race, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a New Hampshire campaign speech, telling the crowd “Nikki Haley was in charge of security” on Jan. 6, 2020, as he has repeatedly sought, without evidence, to allege that Pelosi rejected his offer to send more troops to the Capitol that day.

Biden (Nov. 20): The president mistakenly referred to Taylor Swift as “Britney [Spears]” while attempting a joke at the White House’s annual turkey pardoning ceremony, which took place on his 81st birthday.

Trump (Oct. 23): Trump confused the leaders of Turkey and Hungary in a New Hampshire campaign speech and botched a geographical reference, telling the crowd Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the leader of Turkey, and stating that Turkey shares a “front” with Russia (neither Hungary nor Turkey border Russia and Turkey’s president is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan).

Biden (Sept. 11): Biden falsely stated he was in New York on Sept. 12, 2001 while delivering an anniversary speech to troops in Alaska, claiming he surveyed the damage at Ground Zero the day after the attacks (then-Sen. Biden actually visited Ground Zero on Sept. 20, 2001).

Biden (June 27): Biden has repeatedly mixed up the wars in Ukraine and Iraq, including twice in 24 hours in June, after telling a crowd in Florida in November inflation was tied to “a war in Iraq,” then quickly corrected himself, saying “excuse me, the war in Ukraine,” a misstep that came moments before he wrongly stated his son Beau Biden, who served a year in Iraq in the Delaware Army National Guard, died there (Beau Biden died of brain cancer in the U.S. in 2015).

Key Background

Biden is the oldest president in history and Trump would be the second oldest if he were elected again in November. Though the two are just four years apart, polls consistently show Biden’s age is a far greater concern for voters than Trump’s, including a February Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll that found 82% of voters said Biden or both candidates were too old, compared to 47% who said the same about Trump or both candidates. The age concerns, exacerbated by the candidates’ various rhetorical missteps, have fueled calls for one, or both candidates, to drop out of the race, including a February op-ed and podcast by New York Times’ writer Ezra Klein.Trump—perhaps aware that criticizing Biden’s age could appear hypocritical—has repeatedly said Biden isn’t too old to be president, but is too “incompetent.” Biden, meanwhile, has sought to flip the script on concerns about his own age by highlighting Trump’s missteps on the campaign trail and making jokes about his own age. In an appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” earlier this year, Biden took a jab at Trump for appearing to mix up Melania and Mercedes Schlapp, telling Meyers that Trump is “about as old as I am, but he can’t remember his wife’s name.”

Biden’s verbal missteps have been coupled with trips and falls throughout his tenure, often on the stairs of Air Force One, that have heightened concerns about his mental and physical fitness. In one particularly concerning incident, Biden took a hard fall on stage at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado in June last year, an incident his team blamed on a sandbag on stage.

What To Watch For

Biden and Trump are poised for a historic, and closely contested rematch, in November with polls showing Biden trailing Trump by less than half of a percentage point, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average .

Experts have cautioned against reading into the candidates’ verbal slip-ups on the campaign trail, arguing they can’t necessarily be attributed to old age. "We make mistakes. The probability of slip-ups rises as we get older. That has nothing to do with judgment," S. Jay Olshansky, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Reuters, adding “Someone commenting on Trump turning right when he should have turned left? Big deal. Tripping? Join the club. A misspoken word? It happens to all of us. None of us would survive a 24/7 camera."

Chief Critic

Biden, who has a penchant for gaffes dating back to his 36 years in the Senate, has argued his age is symbolic of his decades of experience, telling reporters in response to the Hur report “I know what the hell I am doing.” He released results of his annual physical exam earlier this year that found he is “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit” to serve as president, White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote. The test did not include a cognitive exam, something White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre argued wasn’t necessary, telling reporters “he passes a cognitive test every day,” referring to the rigors of the presidency. Trump, meanwhile, has claimed he purposely confuses Obama and Biden and Haley and Pelosi, claiming Haley and Pelosi are “interchangeable” and alluding to the unfounded right-wing conspiracy that Obama is secretly pulling the strings at the White House.

Surprising Fact

Trump and his allies have repeatedly called for Biden to undergo cognitive testing, but it’s unlikely any attempts to mandate the tests would pass legal muster, based on the qualifications laid out in the Constitution for holding the office of the presidency. Trump has said repeatedly he’s “aced” two cognitive exams, but he has not released the formal results of either report.

Michelle Obama Once Called Harvey Weinstein 'Wonderful Human Being,' 'Good Friend' and 'Powerhouse'?

"harvey weinstein is a 'wonderful human being and a good friend, and just a powerhouse' — michelle obama," a post on x said., jordan liles, published april 26, 2024.

About this rating

On April 25, 2024, a conservative user on X (formerly Twitter) named Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) posted a video appearing to show former first lady Michelle Obama thanking disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and calling him "a wonderful human being, a good friend and just a powerhouse."

This was no deepfake video , nor was it fake in any other way. Snopes previously addressed this claim in a 2020 fact check .

It's true Mrs. Obama delivered these remarks about Weinstein. Her speech took place in front of a group of students during the Careers in Film Symposium on Nov. 8, 2013. Weinstein helped to organize the event. At the time, U.S. President Barack Obama was in the first year of his second term in the White House.

According to an official White House transcript and video , the former first lady mentioned Weinstein by name as follows:

MRS. OBAMA: I want to start by thanking Harvey Weinstein for organizing this amazing day. (Applause.) Harvey. This is possible because of Harvey. He is a wonderful human being, a good friend and just a powerhouse. And the fact that he and his team took the time to make this happen for all of you should say something not about me or about this place, but about you. Everybody -- we are here because of you. Whoopi Goldberg, Naomie Harris, Ryan Coogler, David Frankel, Blake Lively -- all of us are here because of you. And of course, my dear friend Gayle King is here. We are here because of you. So let's welcome everybody here. (Applause.)

Several years later, following explosive reporting from The New York Times and The New Yorker , Weinstein was twice convicted of rape and sexual assault in courts of law. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York in 2020 and an additional 16 years by a Los Angeles court in 2023.

On April 25, 2024 — the same day the video of Obama and Weinstein was reposted — Weinstein's conviction in New York was thrown out by the state's highest court. The court determined that Weinstein did not have a fair trial because the trial judge allowed testimony about allegations not involved in the case,  The Associated Press reported.

According to The Hill , on the day of the White House event, Weinstein said words to the students that perhaps have a much more striking meaning following his convictions for sex crimes: "I never let anybody tell me no, even the White House."

Evon, Dan. "How to Spot a Deepfake."  Snopes , June 8, 2022, https://www.snopes.com/articles/423004/how-to-spot-a-deepfake/.

Farrow, Ronan. "From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein's Accusers Tell Their Stories." The New Yorker , Oct. 10, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories.

Goodin, Emily. "Weinstein Holds Court at White House." The Hill , Nov. 8, 2013, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/189734-weinstein-commands-white-house-for-film-event/.

"Harvey Weinstein | Producer, Actor, Writer." IMDb , https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005544/.

Herstik, Lauren. "Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 16 Years for Los Angeles Sex Crimes." The New York Times , Feb. 23, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/us/harvey-weinstein-sentence-los-angeles.html.

Kantor, Jodi, and Megan Twohey. "Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades." The New York Times , Oct. 5, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html.

Ransom, Jan. "Harvey Weinstein's Stunning Downfall: 23 Years in Prison." The New York Times , Mar. 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-sentencing.html.

"Remarks by the First Lady at Careers in Film Symposium." The White House , Nov. 8, 2013, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/realitycheck/node/243706.

Sisak, Michael R., and Dave Collins. "Harvey Weinstein's Rape Conviction Is Overturned by New York's Top Court."  The Associated Press , 25 Apr. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/weinstein-metoo-appeal-ed29faeec862abf0c071e8bd3574c4a3.

Tsioulcas, Anastasia. "Harvey Weinstein Will Likely Spend the Rest of His Life in Prison after LA Sentence." NPR , Feb. 23, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/02/23/1158207425/harvey-weinstein-los-angeles.

By Jordan Liles

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

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Speech Writers Grade Obama's Oslo Address

President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Thursday, in Oslo, Norway. He delivered a 36-minute speech and spoke about "the notions of a just war and the imperatives of a just peace." Two former White House speech writers assess the president's address.

Paul Glastris, senior fellow at the New America Foundation, former speech writer for Bill Clinton Peter Robinson, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, former speech writer for Ronald Reagan

NEAL CONAN, host:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.

An important speech, today, from President Obama, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, just days after dispatching 30,000 more U.S. troops to fight in Afghanistan. We'll let you hear substantial excerpts, then get analysis from two former presidential speechwriters. The president began saying he accepts this award with great humility.

President BARACK OBAMA: In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize � Schweitzer and King, Marshall and Mandela � my accomplishments are slight.

And then there are the men and women around the world who've been jailed, been beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics.

I cannot argue with those who find these men and women � some known, some obscure to all but those they help � to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander in chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek, one in which we are joined by 42 other countries � including Norway � in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

CONAN: The contrast between the ideals of Mandela of King and the realities faced by a commander in chief would become one of the president's themes.

President BARACK OBAMA: We must begin by acknowledging a hard truth. We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations, acting individually or in concert, will find the use of force, not only necessary, but morally justified.

I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King, Jr., said in this same ceremony years ago: Violence never brings permanent peace, it solves no social problem, it merely creates new and more complicated ones.

As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life's work, I am living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence. I know there is nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naive in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake, evil does exist in the world.

A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

I raise this point, I begin with this point, because in many countries, there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower.

Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions, not just treaties and declarations, that brought stability to a post-World-War-II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.

CONAN: But President Obama also made it clear, repeatedly, that America cannot act alone.

Pres. OBAMA: I, like any head of state, reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation. Nevertheless, I am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates and weakens those who don't.

The world rallied around America after the 9/11 attacks and continues to support our efforts in Afghanistan because of the horror of those senseless attacks and the recognized principle of self-defense. Likewise, the world recognized the need to confront Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait, a consensus that sent a clear message to all about the cost of aggression.

Furthermore, America, in fact no nation, can insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we don't, our action can appear arbitrary and undercut the legitimacy of future interventions, no matter how justified.

And this becomes particularly important when the purpose of military action extends beyond self-defense or the defense of one nation against an aggressor. More and more, we all confront difficult questions about how to prevent the slaughter of civilians by their own government, or to stop a civil war whose violence and suffering can engulf an entire region.

CONAN: President Obama then repeated his belief that the U.S. has a moral and strategic interest in the rules of war: no more torture, no more Guantanamo Bay. He then went on to outline three ways to build a just and lasting peace, first to develop alternatives to violence tough enough to change behavior.

Pres. OBAMA: One urgent example is the effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to seek a world without them. In the middle of the last century, nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear: All will have access to peaceful nuclear power; those without nuclear weapons will forsake them; and those with nuclear weapons will work toward disarmament.

I am committed to upholding this treaty. It is a centerpiece of my foreign policy, and I am working with President Medvedev to reduce America and Russia's nuclear stockpiles.

But it's also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia. Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war.

CONAN: The president's second point was the nature of the peace we seek. Without human rights, he argued, peace is a hollow promise.

Pres. OBAMA: For some countries, the failure to uphold human rights is excused by the false suggestion that these are somehow Western principles, foreign to local cultures or stages of a nation's development. And within America, there has long been a tension between those who describe themselves as realists or idealists, a tension that suggests a stark choice between the narrow pursuit of interests or an endless campaign to impose our values around the world.

I reject this choice. I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please, choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence.

We also know that the opposite is true. Only when Europe became free did it finally find peace. America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens. No matter how callously defined, neither America's interests nor the world's are served by the denial of human aspirations.

CONAN: The president's third point focused on development, economic security and opportunity, and he concluded by arguing that we do not have to think human nature perfect for us to believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world, he said, to reach for the ideals that will make it a better place.

Pres. OBAMA: Let us reach for the world that ought to be, that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.

(Soundbite of applause)

Pres. OBAMA: Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees he's outgunned but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child's dreams.

Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war and still strive for peace. We can do that, for that is the story of human progress; that's the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you very much.

CONAN: In a moment, former presidential speechwriters Paul Glastris and Peter Robinson on President Obama's address in Oslo today. What did you hear in the speech? 800-989-8255. Email us, [email protected]. You can also join the conversation on our Web site. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Stay with us. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. A bit later this hour, New Yorker magazine writer Jon Lee Anderson took a summer trip to the world's most failed state, Somalia.

But right now, the president's remarks in Oslo, Norway, today, where he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. If you're joining us, he tackled the irony of accepting a peace prize as a wartime president. He maintained that instruments of war do have a role in preserving peace. He also acknowledged the controversy surrounded the Nobel Committee's decision to honor him less than one year into his presidency, saying he knew there were others more deserving of the honor. You can hear the president's remarks in full on our Web site, if you'd like. That's at npr.org.

What did you hear in the speech? 800-989-8255. Email us, [email protected]. You can also join the conversation on our Web site. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

And we - joining us now are two men who used to write speeches for presidents of the United States. Paul Glastris worked at the White House for Bill Clinton. He now is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, editor-in-chief of the Washington Monthly. He's with us here in Studio 3A. Nice to have you back.

Mr. PAUL GLASTRIS (Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; Editor-in-chief, Washington Monthly; Former Speech Writer, President Bill Clinton): Great to be here.

CONAN: And Peter Robinson wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan. He's now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, with us today from the studios at Stanford University in California. Nice to have you back.

Mr. PETER ROBINSON (Research Fellow, Hoover Institution; Former Speech Writer, President Ronald Reagan): Neal, a pleasure, thank you.

CONAN: And an unusual opportunity for a president of the United States, Peter Robinson, a world audience and a grand occasion.

Mr. ROBINSON: All of that true. He had a particular problem in delivering this speech, which I think he did actually address beautifully, which was that even some on his own side - Peter Beinart, for example, when President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, called it a farce - that was his word, a farce - precisely because the president was so new in office and had accomplished so little, frankly, in foreign affairs.

He addressed that immediately. His underlying problem was to lend dignity to an event that could have been, frankly, ridiculous. He did that. He cleared the hurdle.

In my judgment, if you look at the content of the speech, it breaks cleanly into two pieces. The first half struck me as powerful, with passages that come just a little short of magnificent. The second half struck me as much weaker, with a couple of passage that, I'm sorry to say, were almost laughable. I invite brother Paul to talk me out of it, but that's the way it struck me.

CONAN: Paul Glastris?

Mr. GLASTRIS: Well, you know, I agree with Peter that this was an awkward moment for the president, and from the first hour after the award was given, we all recall him coming out to the Rose Garden and saying, you know, somewhat sheepishly, you know, did this really happen? He accepted it, but you could tell they were not expecting it, not inviting it.

Adding to the awkwardness was this awkward fact that he had just announced 30,000 new troops in Afghanistan. So how can you be getting a peace prize as a war president?

So - but as is often the case with Barack Obama, at moments when he has to do a speech on a subject, he has to do a speech he doesn't want to give on a subject he didn't want to deal with, he does his best work. And as we recall from the race speech that happened during the campaign, forced to talk about first principles, figure out, flesh out his philosophy, he tends to be somebody who doesn't want to reject one thing and only in others. So we saw in this speech a real philosophy of American involvement in the world, and I thought it was - magnificent is a good word.

CONAN: And Peter Robinson, it struck other observers that perhaps, the Nobel Committee might have been surprised to invite a speech by a president who ran as the anti-war candidate and get a robust defense of the use of force.

Mr. ROBINSON: That's right. Just before going on the air, Neal, I reread the citation of the Nobel Committee that they issued when awarding the prize to President Obama, and it talked about the new attitude that he embodies, dialogue, negotiations, all frankly what Clare Boothe Luce used to refer to as globaloney: talk. And the president, in what - the powerful first half of the speech, simply brushed that all aside and gave a really unapologetic, thoughtful defense of the American use - the American need to use force from time to time in the world. I couldn't agree more. A couple of members of that committee must have been squirming.

CONAN: And at the same time, Paul Glastris, he talked not just about just war, but about just peace, that peace without human rights is a hollow promise.

Mr. GLASTRIS: That's right, and I guess that second half of the speech may not have been as powerful. There was a kind of a litany, you had to get all the different pieces of the foreign policy in there, and - but what he did in that second half was, I thought, line up the different tools which he believes are essential to American power and made a fairly forceful and cogent argument for using all of them and using them well, from development to human rights to political reform. And I think there was an element in this speech of him trying to remind the world: Though I am a realist who uses force, that doesn't mean that human rights and ideals aren't also part of my thinking.

So there was a weeding together of things and a refusal to reject different tools and different philosophies that have been part of the American foreign policy tradition for a long time.

CONAN: Let's get some listeners in on the conversation, 800-989-8255. Email us, [email protected]. What did you hear in the president's speech in Oslo today? Our guests are former presidential speech writers Paul Glastris and Peter Robinson. Let's start with Diane(ph), Diane with us from Grand Rapids.

DIANE (Caller): Hi.

CONAN: Hi, Diane.

DIANE: Well, I heard him instruct people all over the world how to proceed with courage, and I really thought it was glorious.

CONAN: You heard inspiration in the speech?

DIANE: Yeah.

CONAN: And what struck you in particular?

DIANE: Well, at the very end, when he named different people and their situations, and applied it directly to his overall philosophy of what you guys have just been talking about, the philosophical basis for the decisions and the idealism. So it really is very moving to me.

CONAN: I can tell. I can tell, Diane. And let me ask you, Peter Robinson.

Mr. ROBINSON: Yes.

CONAN: The president has the ability, clearly, that he can launch into these oratorical flights when he chooses, and he apparently chooses his moments carefully. He did not choose to at West Point.

Mr. ROBINSON: That's right. That's exactly right. I agree with Paul that this is probably the most thoughtful speech since the race speech during the campaign. Lord knows, it was long. It came in at over 4,100 words. I compared that to�

CONAN: White House reporters were told to expect 20.

Mr. ROBINSON: Twenty�

CONAN: Twenty minutes.

Mr. ROBINSON: Twenty minutes. Oh, well, they got�

(Soundbite of laughter)

CONAN: They got double that.

Mr. ROBINSON: They got double that, exactly. By the way, I said something that may strike some people as outrageous. I'd like to try it on Paul specifically because I said the second half of the week struck me as weak - second half of the speech, rather, struck me as weak, and here's what I mean.

After that beautiful first half, in which he lays the predicate for action, he then goes on to say: Sanctions must exact a real price. And then he says: It is incumbent on all of us to do - to do what? To impose real sanctions on Iran and Korea? No, to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Insist, game - they're not gaming the system. They're building nuclear missiles in the face of treaties, of one endless series of diplomatic rounds after another.

That struck me as so weak, as so undercutting the earlier half of the speech, in which he laid the predicate for strength in action, that I almost felt it was - it verged on self-satire. I'd just like to hear Paul - in other words, I'm trying to show exactly why I said what I said and see if Paul can talk me out of it.

CONAN: Okay, and let me thank Diane for her call first. Thanks very much, Diane. We'll get to somebody else in a minute.

Mr. GLASTRIS: I guess I - you may be - you know, we read the first half of the speech a little differently. I didn't see the first half of the speech as a rousing, glorious call to arms and action, but as a restrained and thoughtful meditation on the need for force in certain - at certain key moments and very much a kind of Neibuhr-ish - Reinhold Neibuhr - discussion of the need to lash oneself to international institutions to do one's work, and so I don't see the - I think maybe the tone was different, but I don't see that logically, there was any (unintelligible).

CONAN: And Peter Robinson, might it not have been tied to a political reality when you have the Russian government coming out today dismissing the idea of sanctions at all?

Mr. ROBINSON: Yeah, that's entirely possible. It strikes me that even on Paul's reading, even on the Neibuhr-ish reading, the second half struck me as weak. You've got to - you acknowledge the tragedy of human existence, the need to take action from time to time. You can be as thoughtful and agonized about it as you wish, but you still have to do something from�

And in the second half of the speech, it was just more talk, it struck me. It just struck me as undercutting what I thought was a beautiful first half. That's all. That's my point.

CONAN: Here's some emails, this from Eric(ph) in Tucson. I liked what I heard, especially his sense of humility and responsibility and awareness. I think his explicit renunciation of torture alone is worth the peace prize. Decades from now, the worst legacy of the Bush-Cheney years will be in torturing fellow human beings.

Now, President Obama really needs to earn his peace prize over the next three years in efforts to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan and promote a serious effort at tackling climate change and economic inequality.

This from Barbara(ph): I heard my president make clear that peace is a long and enduring process, that it does not come overnight with a magic wand, with a single prayer or thought. We must start the journey to peace, and when we are there, we will know, for peace comes when we believe in it and act on it.

Let's go next to Jeff, Jeff with us from Superior in Wisconsin.

JEFF (Caller): Yes, good afternoon. I listened to the speech twice, and I heard a young man. He's 47 years old, or 48 - whatever. And I think he's struggling with trying to meet his enemy as a leader of the free world in faith, hope and reason. And I think he's been successful in articulating the hope. He struggles with the faith aspect of it because religion enters that. But he realizes the limitations of his reasoning ability, perhaps because of his life experience or because he's a father or, you know, a leader of the nation.

But what concerns me as a liberal who voted for him - and I squirmed a little bit, too - is I'm afraid a man with his responsibility could be drunk with the responsibility of having this largest military in the world. We have this huge military industrial complex that makes money off of wars, and our enemy is upset with the America precisely because we are hegemonous(ph) in terms of our culture and our military. And that's a struggle for him I hear.

CONAN: I did not hear that in the president's speech. I heard quite the opposite. He spoke of the United States, yes, we had made mistakes, but as a force for good in the world over the past six decades, almost entirely.

JEFF: OK. Well, I also heard him struggle with Gandhi and King's - I want to say - blatant embrace of nonviolence.

CONAN: Yes. I wanted to ask - that's a good point, and I wanted to ask Paul Glastris about that. Yes, he embraced the noble ideals of Dr. King and Gandhi, yet - and said there's nothing weak about nonviolence. They were not naive. They were not weak. Nevertheless, that's not the situation I'm in.

Mr. GLASTRIS: It was interesting, because the symbolism of Martin Luther King having received a Nobel Prize, Barack Obama being the first African-American president, this being a Peace Prize, and yet talking about war and just war, into that crucible, out - came out - came some very simple, declarative commonsense arguments about the limits of - the greatness and potential of nonviolence and where it falls, by saying that - he said, you know, Hitler could not have beaten with nonviolence, which is something George Orwell wrote about 60 years ago.

CONAN: And there is evil in the world�

Mr. GLASTRIS: Right.

CONAN: �a phrase which would have fit comfortably into mouth of his immediate predecessors.

Mr. GLASTRIS: Yes, or Peter's former boss.

CONAN: Indeed. And there is a sense of continuity. And Peter Robinson, we were speaking earlier with Ron Elving, the senior Washington editor here at NPR News. And he said he thought he heard a president - as the result of the decisions he's had to make and his time in office now - beginning to grow into the role of president.

Mr. ROBINSON: Yup. I got the feeling, well, grow - what I got the feeling was the sense of struggle. He's not entirely comfortable with all of this. He wishes that the world were a little bit more malleable to talk in good intentions, but he's brought himself to a perhaps reluctant, but four-square recognition that force is sometimes necessary. By the way, Paul when you said Ronald Reagan could have - when I heard Barack Obama say, quote, �The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it,� you know my first thought? My first thought was, gee, I wish I had written that.

CONAN: We're talking with Peter Robinson, who might have written those words for former President Ronald Reagan, and with Paul Glastris, who wrote words as well for Bill Clinton. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And let's see if we can go next to David, David with us from Berkeley.

DAVID: Yeah, I'm in my car on a cell phone so, if it gets cut out, my apologies.

CONAN: Drive carefully, David. OK.

DAVID: Yeah. I guess I'd start with saying I'm a holocaust survivor's son, and, you know, in terms of just war, I could argue that I'd be more in favor of it than anybody else. But over the years, I've thought through what (unintelligible) Hitler. And as a progressive or liberal or whatever you want to call me - and I should say I thought I was a liberal until moved to Berkeley. That's one thing.

DAVID: But, anyway, you know, as a progressive, I think - I wonder if Obama couldn't have been - worked a little harder to get behind what causes quote, unquote, �evil in the world,� to the extent that even identifying that there is evil in the world is a little too maybe unprogressive, and it's a - you know, I'm asking a question here, too. I mean, I think Obama is great in a whole lot of ways, but I was concerned that he did defend just war. And I'm coming - and again, I'm coming from a place where, arguably, I would be for it.

CONAN: And there's no denying that he defended just war. Paul Glastris?

Mr. GLASTRIS: Yeah. I - let me take that point and also Peter's previous point and remind you all that Barack Obama was in favor of stepping up the war in Afghanistan during the political campaign. This is not a new position for him. And his great, famous line that maybe made him president when he spoke up against the Iraq war: I'm not against all wars. I'm against dumb wars. This is not somebody who has struggled with the idea of using force. He may have struggled with the precise policy in Afghanistan. And who wouldn't? It's a miserable situation that he inherited, and I'm not at all sure that he has the right mix of policies now. But in a general sense of somehow having come in as a peacenik president and now suddenly has to confront issues of military force, I just don't think that's true.

CONAN: And I wondered - we just have a couple of minutes left, Peter Robinson, but this was a president who, in the months he spent debating the policies -the way ahead in Afghanistan, was clearly accepting some of the most difficult parts of being the commander-in-chief. He visited Walter Reed Hospital repeatedly. He went to the cemetery at Arlington on Veteran's Day. He clearly thought carefully about the men and women he would be sending to fight. And as he said today, they will kill and they will be killed.

Mr. ROBINSON: That is one of the things that gives this speech such depth and resonance and makes it so fascinating. I - the more I think about it now, the more I think your - Ron, if I remember his name - your political editor, whom I listen to often. I just can't remember his name.

CONAN: Elving.

Mr. ROBINSON: With the notion - right. The - I believe that in Afghanistan, this was the first time in his - and certainly as commander-in-chief, and perhaps in his adult life - when Barack Obama faced choices, none of which was good. And certainly, we know - we can be sure that it was the first time when he was going to send men and women into action knowing that it was their job to kill the enemy. This is not something that sits easily with him. Let's hope we never have a president with whom it sits easily. But for him particularly, there's a sense of struggle and moral anguish. That came through.

CONAN: Peter Robinson, thanks so much for your time, as always.

Mr. ROBINSON: A pleasure, Neal. Thank you.

CONAN: Peter Robinson, research fellow at the Hoover Institute, a former White House speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, with us today from studios at Stanford University. Our thanks as well to Paul Glastris, a senior fellow at the New American Foundation, editor-in-chief at the Washington Monthly. He used to write speeches for Bill Clinton and joined us here in Studio 3A.

Coming up: inside the world's most failed state. We'll talk with the New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson about his visit to Somalia.

Stay with us. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2009 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Gay actor’s speech back on at Pennsylvania school after cancellation over his ‘lifestyle’

FILE - Actor Maulik Pancholy attends the premiere of “Trishna” during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, April 27, 2012 in New York. The school board has reversed it’s decision to cancel an upcoming speech by Pancholy due to concerns about what they described as his activism and “lifestyle.” The board voted 5-4, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, to allow Pancholy to speak at assembly next month where he will speak out against bullying.(AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

The Cumberland Valley School Board holds a special meeting to discuss their decision to cancel an assembly featuring Maulik Pancholy, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday to allow Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. (Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP)

Supporters of reinstating the Maulik Pancholy assembly cheer during the Cumberland Valley School Board special meeting to discuss their decision to cancel the assembly, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday to allow Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. (Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP)

Brooke Ryerson, 16, right a 10th grade student and her mom Valarie Ryerson of Hampden Twp., Pa., hand out stickers with the eagle logo on a rainbow background before the the Cumberland Valley School Board holds a special meeting to discuss their decision to cancel an assembly featuring “30 Rock” star, Maulik Pancholy, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP)

Supporters of reinstating the Maulik Pancholy assembly cheer during the Cumberland Valley School Board special meeting to discuss their decision to cancel the assembly. April 24, 2024 in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday to allow Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. (Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP)

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A gay actor’s speech that was canceled over his “lifestyle” is back on at a Pennsylvania school after residents spoke out.

The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to allow children’s book author Maulik Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. The board voted after hearing from residents, including more than a dozen students.

The board on April 15 unanimously canceled Pancholy’s talk after a board member cited concerns about what he described as the actor’s activism and “lifestyle.” Some board members also noted the district enacted a policy about not hosting overtly political events after it was criticized for hosting a Donald Trump rally during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Some community members said the cancellation was ill-advised and sent a hurtful message, especially to the LGBTQ+ community, and Superintendent Mark Blanchard and other district leaders sent a letter to the board, faculty and staff asserting that Pancholy’s speech should have been allowed.

The education officials said they were not given “a real opportunity” by the board to answer questions or provide guidance about the event, which they said was aimed at reinforcing the importance of treating all people equally.

Pancholy, 48, is an award-winning actor, including for his roles on the television shows “30 Rock” and “Weeds,” and as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney animated series, “Phineas & Ferb.” He also has written children’s books and in 2014 was named by then-President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, where he co-founded a campaign to combat AAPI bullying.

Pancholy’s appearance was scheduled by the school’s leadership team, which each year selects an author to present a “unique educational experience for students,” according to the district.

At the April 15 meeting, school board members said they did not know what Pancholy would talk about, but one member said he didn’t “want to run the risk” of what it might entail.

“If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist,” Bud Shaffner said, according to Pennlive. “He is proud of his lifestyle, and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students, at any age.”

Pancholy is looking forward to seeing the community members who supported him next month and was moved by “every single student who showed immense courage” by speaking out at the board meeting, he said in a statement Thursday.

“Thank you for sharing your powerful messages of love, inclusion, respect, and belonging,” Pancholy wrote.

In a statement posted on social media after the initial board vote, Pancholy had said that as a middle school student he never saw himself represented in stories, and that books featuring South Asian-American or LGBTQ+ characters “didn’t exist.” When he started writing his own novels years later, he was still hard-pressed to find those stories, he said.

“It’s why I wrote my books in the first place,” Pancholy wrote. “Because representation matters.”

Pancholy said his school visits are meant “to let all young people know that they’re seen. To let them know that they matter.”