給O8寫演講稿的是一個27歲的小夥 (圖)

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2009/01/19/jon_favreau_narrowweb__300x443,0.jpg

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/speechwriter-awaits-his-15-minutes-of-fame/2009/01/19/1232213541387.html

Speechwriter awaits his 15 minutes of fame

Alex Spillius in Washington

January 20, 2009

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PRESIDENTIAL speechwriters are rarely old, but at 27 Jon Favreau will probably be the youngest to contribute to an inaugural address.

In a dazzling career there has been just one blot: when a photograph appeared on the internet of him groping a life-size cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton, then Barack Obama\'s vanquished opponent for the Democratic nomination.

After a public apology, he was appointed the incoming director of speechwriting, continuing a very close working relationship with Mr Obama. He joined the then presidential outsider after serving on the staff of the defeated Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, and quickly found he could write unerringly in his master\'s distinctive voice.

Mr Obama is perhaps the best writer-president since Abraham Lincoln, and wrote both his best-selling books himself.

He has crafted some of his landmark speeches entirely by his own hand, but particularly as the election campaign intensified last year, Mr Favreau led a team of writers who helped draft his words. On most speeches, such as the inaugural address, Mr Obama writes a first draft or an outline and then sends his musings to Mr Favreau, beginning a back and forth process that can last for weeks.

Other speechwriters say he is lucky to have a president who treats his writers well. Nixon treated his like advertising copy writers, said Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter. Everyone needs speechwriters. You don\'t do it yourself unless you are Lincoln.

By tradition, the inaugural speech is no more than 15 minutes long, for which the crowd may be grateful as temperatures are forecast to be around freezing.

And if Barack Obama needed reminding of the pressure surrounding his speech, it came from his daughter Malia. As the soon-to-be first family toured the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the 10-year-old warned her father: First African American president - it better be good.

Telegraph, London