Pundit Wire

Category Archives: Political Rhetoric

The Death of Ambassador Chris Stevens: Honesty and Accuracy

By Charles Crawford | Published: May 14, 2013

President Obama UN Speech One question I put into my Speechwriting training courses (and into any course I give) is this:

What is the Supreme Quality in any piece of professional work such as a speech? Choose from the following options:

  • Simple message
  • Strong structure
  • Accuracy
  • Loyalty
  • Energy + commitment
  • Clear language
  • Honesty + integrity
Read More »
Also posted in Campaigns & Elections, General, International, National Security, Politics, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Reject These Voices”: Obama’s Ohio State Offensive

By John K. Herr | Published: May 7, 2013

OSU Commencement_Official White House Photo by Pete Souza_thumb Commencement addresses are tricky for the political speechwriter. The audience is young and distracted. They did not come to see the speaker, a politician who is never more than a sentence away from a flash-mob eyeroll.

President Barack Obama found a way around this dilemma. His commencement address Sunday at the Ohio State University was a full-throated defense of his political agenda, backed by an attack on his opponents as un-American. He carefully built up strawmen, then casually torched them in his insouciant style.

Read More »
Also posted in General, Politics, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Everything we see is perspective, not the truth.” -Marcus Aurelius

By Dave Helfert | Published: April 24, 2013

Wayne LaPierre. Credit to Gage Skidmore The National Rifle Association’s willingness and facility with lying about anything that might reduce the slaughter of innocent people by being shot has always been striking. But rarely has a national organization turned its back so completely on its previous positions, ignored the clear and overwhelming sentiment of the American people in general and its own paying membership in particular, and been so willing to depart so totally from facts.

Read More »
Also posted in Campaigns & Elections, Civil Rights, General, Media, Politics, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Help! I’ve been Framed!

By Charles Crawford | Published: April 22, 2013

David Axelrod A key skill taught to mediators and negotiators is how to ‘reframe’ issues. This means moving the conversation to a higher level of generalisation. A form of bold simplification that (as the jargon has it) takes all concerned from their obvious Positions to less obvious Interests and Needs. And thereby creates space for strategic compromises.

Thus a haggle over compensation payments: “I think I’m hearing from you that you can be flexible on phasing these payments, but you really need certainty on the total?” The reframing question opens the idea of trading Money against Time.

Framing is all around us these days in politics. Organisation activist Saul Alinsky featured it prominently in his Rules for Radicals: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Read More »
Also posted in Culture, General | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Conservatives Vow Outreach To “Welfare-Taking, Job-Killing” Hispanics

By John K. Herr | Published: April 3, 2013

Rep. Don Young WASHINGTON D.C. — Conservatives in Washington, still smarting over their electoral defeat in November, held a conference Tuesday to offer new strategies to attract the votes of the Hispanic community.

The forum, entitled “Reaching Out: Sharing the Message of Liberty With All Americans,” was simulcast on C-SPAN.

“Our message is simple: it’s freedom and economic opportunity,” said Robert “Red” Flange, author of the best-selling book “Invaders: Why We Continue to Welcome Terrorists and Criminals to Our Shores.”

Read More »
Also posted in General, Media, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Just Say No to Musty, Needy Speeches

By Charles Crawford | Published: March 29, 2013

David Miliband America! Brace yourself! David Miliband is coming to New York to lead the International Rescue Committee.

David Miliband is hailed in British and wider progressive circles as someone with preternaturally high mental powers. On my own brief encounters with him I have found him charming and clever. However, he had the misfortune to serve as UK Foreign Secretary under the doomed premiership of Gordon Brown, and as the creaking Labour ship pushed full steam ahead to defeat he had few opportunities to do anything useful.

One of the things you nonetheless might expect a staggeringly able British Foreign Minister to do is make powerful, interesting speeches.

Read More »
Also posted in General, International, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sequester This, Mr. Obama!

By Hal Gordon | Published: March 15, 2013

Sen. Coburn's Twitter Shortly after I started writing speeches for Jim Miller, President Reagan’s budget director, Jim debated Democrat Congressman Bill Gray, then chairman of the House Budget Committee. In the course of his remarks, Gray insisted that there was no more fat to cut from the federal budget, “We’re down to bone and marrow.”

Jim, as was his wont, replied to this rather absurd pronouncement with appropriate tact and politeness. But when we got back to his office, he was fuming. “Bone and marrow!” he muttered. “Bone and marrow! Why that…”

Spotting a chance to ingratiate myself with my new boss, I piped up, “I think you’ve got a pretty good speech right there, Jim.”

“How’s that?” he asked, a tad suspiciously.

Read More »
Also posted in Economy, General, Politics, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If the Other Side is Crying Foul, It Must Be Working

By Dave Helfert | Published: February 28, 2013

OFA The Republican message machine learned that people are a lot more likely to listen and remember what you’re saying if what you’re saying connects to things they care about. Democratic messengers, on the other hand, always seemed to bring a knife to a gun fight.

Read More »
Also posted in Campaigns & Elections, General, Media, U.S. | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment