Local Boy Makes Good.

The New York Times profiles Barak Obama's head speechwriter, John Favreau. He's a 26 year old graduate of Holy Cross.

Also gives us a look into the art of speechwriting:

“The trick of speechwriting, if you will, is making the client say your brilliant words while somehow managing to make it sound as though they issued straight from their own soul,” said the writer Christopher Buckley, who was a speechwriter for the first President Bush. “Imagine putting the words ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’ into the mouth of Ron Paul, and you can see the problem.”

One of our biggest problems w/ Bush’s speechwriters is they do exactly what Buckley advises against: they craft intricate, wordy speeches with lofty language, and put it into the hands of a an inarticulate man who’s at his best when he’s in his plain speaking, “aw shucks" good ‘ol boy mode.