Thank you. Please, everybody, have a seat. Turn off your iPhones, you can watch the Dorner coverage later. That means you, Joe.
My fellow Americans, 51 years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that, “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power, but partners for progress. It is my task to report the State of the Union. To improve it is the task of us all.”
(APPLAUSE)
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“At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first.”
So said Abraham Lincoln as he began his second inaugural address in 1865. And then he gave one of the greatest presidential orations ever, pledging, “with malice towards none, with charity towards all … to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
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When I read the text of Mitt Romney’s speech in Warsaw on Tuesday, there were two sentences that stirred a vague memory in the back of my speechwriter’s brain. “In the 1980s,” said Mr. Romney, “when other nations doubted that political tyranny could ever be faced down or overcome, the answer was, ‘Look to Poland.’ And today, as some wonder about the way forward out of economic recession and fiscal crisis, the answer once again is ‘Look to Poland.’”
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Editor’s Note: Announcing “What Would a JFK Say Now?” Speechwriting Competition Winners
Submitted speeches were reviewed by AU professors Lenny Steinhorn, Bob Lehrman, Jeff Nussbaum and Amanda Fuchs Miller. The final 12 speeches were judged by Adam Frankel, former senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, and Desson Thomson, speechwriter for the Obama Administration and former movie critic for The Washington Post.
PunditWire would like to congratulate the winners:
Please click through to read each winning speech.
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