Clinton speechwriter provides glimpse of presidential oratory

Homer described Achilles as "the giver of speeches and the doer of deeds." Based on that definition, though, President Bill Clinton is no Achilles since while he performs the deeds, it's the media that usually gives the speeches people hear. It is usually only once a year -- the night of the State of the Union Address -- that the president appears unfiltered to the American public. On every other night, Americans receive a series of little more than soundbytes. So argued Paul Glastris, special assistant to the president and a senior presidential speechwriter, who delivered a lecture to 30 people Thursday night called "Speechwriting: Ancient and Modern." Co-sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship and Connaissance, Glastris' lecture emphasized the forensic skills of the outgoing commander-in-chief. Glastris equated the art of ancient speech giving with the ability to use word processing programs. "Only humans have the ability to conduct debates about what is right, [the ability to] seek truth through words," Glastris said. Nowadays, he said, "there is no political orator who can compare with Fabio or Cher." He continued, "Americans look at politicians with suspicions until they hear a great public speaker speak." And Clinton, Glastris asserted, "ranks as one of the best speakers." Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, all considered great speakers in their own right, Clinton does not have one slogan for which he will be remembered. America is not in a crisis like it was during those presidencies. Now, however, the nation faces "complex, multifaceted problems that don't call for high rhetoric." College senior Sara Nasuti asked Glastris how he perceived differences between the speeches of presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore. "When Bush delivers a speech, it is very poetic and very eloquent, [you] don't for a moment think it came out of his mind," she said. When Gore speaks, however, "it [does] come out of his mind. "When Gore is in press conference mode, he looks like a president," Glastris said, adding that if elected, Gore will "surprise people at what a good presidential speaker he will be." Alexander Webster, the University Eastern Orthodox chaplain, said the OCF is trying to make its monthly lecture series as "diverse and creative as possible." Webster invited Glastris because "his work is pretty secular and pretty far ranging than usual for a Greek Orthodox." Glastris advised that one should go into journalism and achieve mastery in policy making and only then try speechmaking. It worked for him. Glastris wrote for The Washington Monthly and U.S. News & World Report before joining the president's team of six speechwriters. Come January, Glastris plans to return to the media and take over as editor of The Washington Monthly.