(MintPress) – Are President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney really that funny? They might be, but the laughs generated at Thursday evening’s Alfred E. Smith dinner can’t be entirely credited to the two politicians, who both have an arsenal of speech writers at hand.
Yet the Twittersphere was jam packed with comments Thursday evening and the wee hours of Friday morning, most of which gave praise to the favorite candidate for their presumed hilarity. Sure, delivery plays a part in the overall humor rating, but these are politicians. They’re trained to be charismatic.
That’s not to say that there weren’t some zingers being thrown around at the Smith dinner. The comedic speech writers for Obama and Romney delivered the laughs, which the country as a whole could use at this point in the tense political game.
Romney’s attempt to come off as a stand up comic may have hovered over the category of overdressed roaster, with humor that stemmed from insults to the president, including a reference to Bill Clinton — not Michelle Obama — as the one the president turns to when he needs to be held.
There were some moments of forced laughter, though, as Romney joked about whether or not the Catholic Cardinal would turn Obama’s wine into water. Well, perhaps he didn’t have speech writers for that one.
Obama took an arguably lighter approach, poking fun at himself for his lethargic performance in the first round of debates, when U.S. citizens questioned whether the president had accidentally taken a Benadryl before stepping on stage.
“As some of you may have noticed, I had a lot more energy in our second debate. I felt really well rested after the nice, long nap I had after the first debate,” the president said, in a comment that drew roaring laughter from the crowd.
It was funny, but he probably didn’t build that — or write it.
Yet Americans’ clamor to hoist their political preferential candidate up as the king of comedy for the night highlights the readiness U.S. voters have to feed into the political game. Most citizens, if asked, would have the intellectual capacity to question the notion that presidential candidates write their own speeches. In the heat of the night, amidst the Twitter buzz, Americans seem succumb to give in to the theatrical performance.
It’s light, it’s fun, it’s easy. But is it accurate?
Romney and his speechwriters
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post wrote an article in August, in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention (RNC), asserting that Romney was considered by his staffers as somewhat of a micromanager when it came to speeches.
In the article, his staffers refer to Romney as a tinkerer — someone who is so directly involved in writing and editing his speeches that it costs him and his staffers a loss of pillow time.
That could explain his performance at the Smith dinner. Yet it’s a notion that’s contradicted in the media.
The picture painted by Politico in September tells a different story. Romney’s top advisor, Stuart Stevens, had been under fire for mishandling the campaign, specifically when it came to that RNC speech.
The Politico story told the tale of Stevens and his disregard for Republican speechwriting veteran Peter Wehner. The story paints the picture of Stevens’ move to scrap the speech written by Wehner. According to Romney aides who spoke off-the-record, it was a move that caused a “chaotic, eight day scramble.” The story raised questions relating to Romney’s involvement in the speech, at least at the starting phases of its creation.
And, clearly, Romney isn’t the only one with backstage campaign architects who control the game.
Laura Dean became the young woman the media began to focus on. She’s considered to play a pivotal role in Obama’s campaign. In fact, she could be to thank for Obama’s favorability with women voters. Dean was a Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality major at Harvard. She interned with the White House and very quickly became a speechwriter. And, of course, she’s just one of many speechwriters.
Another big name among the Obama campaign is Jon Favreau, another young one, who at 27-years-old has made quite the name for himself. In 2008, he was named the director of the president’s speech writing team. A story published in New York Times’ The Caucus looked at the role Favreau plays, claiming that while the rumor may be that Obama writes his own speeches first, that’s likely not the case.
How do politicians write those books so dang fast?
Just as humans learn from a young age that speech writers are part of the political game, most people could come to the conclusion that books written by politicians, which appear on the market during the midst of incredibly hectic times in their lives, are, too, written with a little help from a professional.
While it’s nice to assume that George W. Bush sat down at his typewriter alone in his room with a cup of tea and his thoughts when he penned “Decision Points,” that probably wasn’t the case. Granted he did have the extra time on his hands after his eight-year run in the White House, he is alleged to have used the help of a ghostwriter.
And it should be assumed he’s not alone. Credit skepticism has been given to “Obama’s Dreams of My Father.” Romney, however, made a claim on the campaign trail in 2011 that his book, “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness,” was first contracted out to a ghostwriter, but he took the power back, claiming he wasn’t satisfied. He was an English major, but who really knows.
While it’s reasonable to assume presidential candidates are in-the-know when it comes to their speeches and books, it’s also reasonable to listen to each literary piece — comedy included — with the knowledge that it’s scripted, and it wasn’t crafted solely by the man (or woman) on the stage.