"Thanks Obama" By David Litt

Mini Bio of David Litt


David Litt is an American speechwriter, who at the age of 24, served as a senior presidential speechwriter to former President Obama. He graduated from Yale University and wrote many of Obama's speeches from 2011-2016.

"Thanks Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years" 

David Litt's latest comedic memoir details his time writing many of Obama's speeches, jokes, video's and more. He gives insight into his job as the senior presidential writer as well as how the former president added or tweaked the speeches himself. He also delves into the importance of speech writing in politics and how it's a double duties task of getting out the information you want while being extremely conscious of word choice so the opposing party can't misconstrue the speech, create something out of nothing or give a different meaning to what the speech truly intends. for instance, one year in a Thanksgiving video, Obama did not say thanks to "the all mighty". The script was written by Litt and failed to mention God. The conservative networks took that as an opportunity to criticize the former president and liberal media reported on conservative reporting of that specific "news story". He clarifies that this is not an actual news story-especially since Bush's, fails to mention God in 5/8 thanksgiving speeches-and words or missing words can have a huge impact on news and politics.



Thoughts

I think it's really interesting that Litt decided to write this comedic memoir about his time as a millennial senior speechwriter. I think it's inspiration to aspiring political writers in college but more important I think it gives Americans insight into speech writing for presidents. We all know presidents don't write their own speeches (at least I hope we all do), and the lives/tasks of speechwriters have been undisclosed for a long time. Presidents have far more important tasks in a day than to write a speech, especially in an era where presidential speeches are a regular and seemingly daily occurrence. The way Litt describes his job gives understanding to the importance of political rhetoric, sarcasm, and speeches. Furthermore, it gives audiences insight into how the speechwriter is almost like the presidents right hand.  The speechwriter is an integral part of the presidency and the presidents legacy. 

Comments

  1. Clarence HollinsSeptember 27, 2017 at 8:39 AM

    This was a great look at a comedic genius that could take sensitive topics and put them in the political realm! I think you chose a great person to do your post on, and when looking back at all of President Obama's speech, we know where his comedic genius came from!

    ReplyDelete

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