Free Republic

“I don’t believe my speeches took me as far as they did merely because of my rhetoric or delivery, but because there were certain basic truths in them that the average American citizen recognized. When I first began speaking of political things, I could feel that people were as frustrated about the government as I was. What I said simply made sense to the guy on the the street and it’s the guy on the street who elects presidents of the United States. And that’s exactly what happened to me.” Ronald Reagan The staring contest with the stump speech I...

Here, then, are 27 zingers Republican candidates might sprinkle in their speeches. 1. “Here is an economics lesson for President Obama and congressional Democrats: You can’t be ‘for jobs’ and against those who create them.” 2. “Saying government can ‘spend its way to prosperity’ is like saying you can ‘eat yourself skinny.’” 3. “I refuse to put my faith in a government that can’t plug a hole.” 4. “We need leadership that’s as committed to getting this economy moving as it is about building a mosque at Ground Zero.” 5. “If ignorance is bliss, why do Harry Reid and Nancy...

Moments after Sarah Palin had finished her barnstorming acceptance speech to the Republican Convention, the media spinning began: sure, she can use a teleprompter or read a speech written by a gifted speechwriter like Matthew Scully. Big deal. So could anybody. Two facts make me uniquely qualified to comment on these claims. First, I used to be a speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher. Second, as editor of National Review I hired Matt Scully to be assistant editor and introduced him to the world of conservative opinion journalism. But the truth about speechwriting is strictly bipartisan. There are cases of politicians simply...

IRAQ I Wrote Bush's War Words -- in 1965 By Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Ellsberg worked in the State and Defense departments under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. He released the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971. President Bush's explanation Tuesday night for staying the course in Iraq evoked in me a sense of familiarity, but not nostalgia. I had heard virtually all of his themes before, almost word for word, in speeches delivered by three presidents I worked for: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Not with pride, I recognized that I had proposed some...

Of all the horrors that George Bush has committed over the last four years, one of the most egregious has been his assault on the English language. However, as this election campaign has heated up, something strange has happened - John Kerry has taken on the role of the oratorically challenged, and Bush is suddenly scoring As in the speech department. After 20 years in the Senate, Kerry has developed a meandering, circumlocutory speaking style. The point he is trying to make is pushed to the distant end of ridiculously long verbal structures. I had hoped that, during the campaign,...