While the conservatives go on about how Obama's heavy use of the Teleprompter means he is an empty suit and a phony—just as Michael Steele's unscripted babbling means he is a sincere man of principle—a Chicago Tribune story comes out about Obama's tight relationship with speechwriter Jon Favreau.
He's the 27-year-old heartthrob scribe who I predicted would be gone within the year because he's too inexperienced and self-promoting for the job. A sign he might prove me wrong: Favreau didn't participate in the Trib story.
Also:
"I've never worked for a politician who values words as much as the president does," Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said. "The speechwriter is an unusually important person in the operation. [Obama's] willingness to entrust his words to others is limited."
As writers, we have to respect or at the very least understand the instincts of a statesman who wants to get the words exactly right in speeches—and who won't blab some empty blather some policy hack hands him for a Rose Garden speech. Like us, he feels his words are what he is as much as his actions are.
Questioning the authenticity of a guy who feels this way seems to be attacking him at his strength.
Doesn't it?