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A White House speechwriter works on hundreds of presidential addresses every year. Few get more scrutiny than the State of the Union. President Obama's writers are presumably putting the finishing touches on his address.
NPR's Ari Shapiro spoke with a group of former White House speechwriters about why this speech is different from all the others.
ARI SHAPIRO: For a speechwriter, there is a conflict in the State of the Union Address. It's the speech that gets all the attention, where the president lays out his agenda for the year ahead. But as far as poetry, arc and theme, it can also be the clunkiest speech of the year.
Ms. MARY KATE CARY (Former Speechwriter, White House): They can be an absolute legislative laundry list, and that doesn't make it very fun to write.
SHAPIRO: Mary Kate Cary was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.
Ms. CARY: On one hand, it's nice to have the glory of saying well, I wrote the State of the Union Address. But really, you'd rather want to be known for writing the Inaugural Address. That's where the poetry is, and the State of the Union is a bit of a slog, I think.
SHAPIRO: Most presidential speeches take shape vertically. That is to say, one speechwriter is in charge. He or she sends it up the White House ladder until it reaches the president.
The State of the Union takes shape horizontally. Every department and agency submits its plans for the coming year. Everyone has an opinion about what the speech should say. And that can be a management challenge, says former George W. Bush speechwriter John McConnell.
Mr. JOHN MCCONNELL (Former Speechwriter, White House): You get a lot of suggestions from throughout the administration, of things that need to go in the speech. You get suggested language, at times, from people. And you have to give everything fair consideration.
SHAPIRO: The planning takes months; it starts before Christmas.
Mr. MCCONNELL: In my experience, it took about seven days - three writers, seven days to do the first draft of the State of the Union.
SHAPIRO: This year, people familiar with the process say White House speechwriters were working on a draft on Saturday, January 8th. That day, a gunman opened fire in Arizona, shooting congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords through the head and killing several others.
For the team writing the State of the Union, the attack meant the mood of the speech had to change. During marathon revision sessions, they struggled over how to appropriately reflect the moment that the country is in - both after Tucson, and after more than two years of economic struggles.
Former Clinton speechwriter Jeff Shesol says Tuesday's address can't just be a sequel to the eulogy President Obama delivered in Arizona.
Mr. JEFF SHESOL (Former Speechwriter, White House): An event like Tucson will certainly have an effect. That said, it's been clear already that he's going to talk about the deficit. He's going to talk about spending cuts. He is very likely going to talk about tax reform. Those things were already going to be in the speech, and they will still be in the speech irrespective of what happened in Tucson.
SHAPIRO: Still, the attacks will be a part of this speech. People from Tucson will almost certainly sit with the first lady in the House Gallery. And former Clinton speechwriter Michael Waldman says the president would be foolish not to use this moment to build on the political gains from the Tucson speech.
Mr. MICHAEL WALDMAN (Former Speechwriter, White House): President Obama will want to use a speech like this to reassert his standing not as a divisive, partisan figure, but as a leader for the whole country. He really began to do that with the success in the lame-duck session of Congress, and with the powerful and very widely praised eulogy in Tucson. But this speech is the next chance to do that.
SHAPIRO: And the need for someone who can work with both parties is stronger now than ever. Behind President Obama, Republican House Speaker John Boehner will be sitting in the chair that Democrat Nancy Pelosi occupied last year. So one option is for Mr. Obama to strike a conciliatory tone with Republicans.
But former Bush speechwriter John McConnell says thats not the only option.
Mr. MCCONNELL: I think back to President Bush in 2007, when he was facing a new majority. And his back was against the wall, in a sense, because he was trying to push the troop surge in Iraq, and the support for that was very thin in the Congress. And he went in there, in the State of the Union, and he gave a very powerful message and had them on their feet.
SHAPIRO: And that year, even though Democrats controlled Congress, the troop surge happened.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News.