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An avid high school debater and enthusiastic student body president, Craig Smith seemed destined for a life in public service from an early age. As a sought-after speechwriter, Smith had a front-row seat at some of the most important events of the twentieth century, meeting with Robert Kennedy and Richard Nixon, advising Governor Ronald Reagan, writing for President Ford, serving as a campaign manager for a major U.S. senator’s reelection campaign, and writing speeches for a contender for the Republican nomination for president. Life in the volatile world of politics wasn’t always easy, however, and as a closeted gay man, Smith struggled to reconcile his private and professional lives. In this revealing memoir, Smith sheds light on what it takes to make it as a speechwriter in a field where the only constant is change. While bouncing in and out of the academic world, Smith transitions from consultantships with George H. W. Bush and the Republican caucus of the U.S. Senate to a position with Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca. When Smith returns to Washington, D.C., as president and founder of the Freedom of Expression Foundation, he becomes a leading player on First Amendment issues in the nation’s capital. Returning at long last to academia, Smith finds happiness coming out of the closet and reaping the benefits of a dedicated and highly successful career.
This book is a unique examination of the phenomenon of the call. Characterizing the call as a rhetorical event, the book identifies how speakers can use eloquence in the service of truth. Authors Craig R. Smith and Michael J. Hyde offer the rare combination of a phenomenology of the call linked closely to eloquence and explore this linkage by examining the components of eloquence, including examples of its misuse by George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The bulk of the text examines case studies of eloquence in the service of truth including epideictic, forensic, and deliberative eloquence, with examples drawn from addresses by Barack Obama, Daniel Webster, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Chase Smith, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney. The authors also examine the Epistles of St. Paul, the writings of St. Augustine, and the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Finally, the book explores eloquence in filmic narratives and dialogic communication between artists and writers, concluding with a study of the sublime and how it is evoked with awe using the work of Annie Dillard.
Speechwriter can hide. Humes shares what he learned in his 25-year career as a presidential speechwriter. Page after page crackles with such fascinating disclosures as Nixon's suspicions about the identity of "Deep Throat", the real reason behind Ford's pardon of Nixon, why Reagan was his own best speechwriter, and why Bush lost. Humes reveals the secrets of the speechwriting trade, and spins marvelous anecdotes including sending Eisenhower to the Ladies' Room, writing.
THE ACCLAIMED BOOK, NOW IN PAPERBACK, with a reading group guide and a new afterword by the author. At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark "Unspeakable" forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up. Douglass takes readers into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the President’s motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.
Presidents and Their Pens: The Story of White House Speechwriters explores 23 presidencies through the detailed analysis of speeches including Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” speech, Eisenhower’s farewell to the nation, and Bill Clinton’s compassionate words in the wake of tragedy. Confidant and wordsmith to five Republican presidents (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush), professor of language and noted historian James C. Humes tells how and why presidential speeches have marked milestones in our nation’s history, from Washington through Obama. Readers will find out how FDR brought down the house with humor, how “Give ‘em hell” Harry Truman planned his Whistle-Stop Tours, and how Ronald Reagan defied his advisors to make history at the Berlin Wall. Presenting stories of greatness as well as tragically unfulfilled promise, Presidents and Their Pens also features an introduction by author and historian Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
Two leading reputation experts reveal how the internet is being used to destroy brands, reputations and even lives, and how to fight back. From false Wikipedia entries, to fake YouTube videos, to Facebook lynch mobs, everyone from CEOs to fashion models, journalists to politicians, restaurateurs to doctors, is open to character assassination in the burgeoning realm of digital media. Two top media experts recount vivid tales of character attacks, provide specific advice on how to counter them, and how to turn the tables on the attackers. Having spent decades preparing for and coping with these issues, Richard Torrenzano and Mark Davis share their secrets on dealing with problems at the top of today's news. Torrenzano and Davis also take a step back to look at how the past might inform our future thinking about character assassination, from the slander wars between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, to predictions on what the end of privacy will mean for civilization.
A father’s last confession to his son about the CIA, Watergate, and the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy, this is the remarkable true story of St. John Hunt and his father E. Howard Hunt, the infamous Watergate burglar and CIA spymaster. In Howard Hunt's near-death confession to his son St. John, he revealed that key figures in the CIA were responsible for the plot to assassinate JFK in Dallas, and that Hunt himself was approached by the plotters, among whom included the CIA’s David Atlee Phillips, Cord Meyer, Jr., and William Harvey, as well as future Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis. An incredible true story told from an inside, authoritative source, this is also a personal account of a uniquely dysfunctional American family caught up in two of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century.
A collection of presidential trivia, including a Q & A format.
Bedlam erupted among 1,500 ecstatic supporters when Bobby and Ethel Kennedy appeared. Looking tanned and rested, he stepped to the rostrum and pulled from his breast pocket an envelope on which he had jotted some notes. Giving a brief speech intentionally so he could wrap up the evening and get to the party, he congratulated his vanquished primary opponent, Eugene McCarthy, called for Party unity, and expressed hope that his campaign might end the divisions in America. . . . Bobby finished his remarks extemporaneously: "We are a great country, an unselfish country, and a compassionate country. And I intend to make that my basis for running." Pausing until the cheers died down, he added, "So my thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago--and let's win there." The 1968 election was--and remains-- spellbinding. Unlike modern presidential campaigns, where a dozen or more unknowns vie for debate stage sound bites, that year nine titans battled for the presidency. Fifty years later, most people are unaware that in a single race former Vice President Richard Nixon, California Governor Ronald Reagan, President Lyndon Johnson, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, former Alabama Governor George Wallace, and Michigan Governor George Romney all squared off for the White House. The shocking assassination of Robert Kennedy on the night of his California primary victory left a gaping hole in history. and for five decades left this unanswered question: What if? On to Chicago answers for history--based on facts, not on idealized or romantic notions--what likely would have happened if RFK had lived to go on to Chicago, the city that hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention. On to Chicago is a heavily researched and sourced work that twists the arc of history with facts that will appeal both to fiction lovers as well as pure history aficionados, because so much of it is true. With nearly one thousand endnotes online that confirm how much of this story mirrors reality, many revelations will surprise even the most dedicated history buffs.
Named a best book of the year by The Economist and Foreign Affairs "A whole book devoted exclusively to the misconduct of American presidents and their responses to charges of misconduct is without precedent." —from the introduction to the 1974 edition by C. Vann Woodward, Pulitzer Prize–winning Yale historian The historic 1974 report for the House Committee on the Judiciary, updated for today by leading presidential historians In May 1974, as President Richard Nixon faced impeachment following the Watergate scandal, the House Judiciary Committee commissioned a historical account of the misdeeds of past presidents. The account, compiled by leading presidential historians of the day, reached back to George Washington's administration and was designed to provide a benchmark against which Nixon's misdeeds could be measured. What the report found was that, with the exception of William Henry Harrison (who served less than a month), every American president has been accused of misconduct: James Buchanan was charged with rigging the election of 1856; Ulysses S. Grant was reprimanded for not firing his corrupt staffer, Orville Babcock, in the "Whiskey Ring" bribery scandal; and Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration faced repeated charges of malfeasance in the Works Progress Administration. Now, as another president and his subordinates face an array of charges on a wide range of legal and constitutional offenses, a group of presidential historians has come together under the leadership of James M. Banner, Jr.—one of the historians who contributed to the original report—to bring the 1974 account up to date through Barack Obama's presidency. Based on current scholarship, this new material covers such well-known episodes as Nixon's Watergate crisis, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, Clinton's impeachment, and George W. Bush's connection to the exposure of intelligence secrets. But oft-forgotten events also take the stage: Carter's troubles with advisor Bert Lance, Reagan's savings and loan crisis, George H.W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and Obama's Solyndra loan controversy. The only comprehensive study of American presidents' misconduct and the ways in which chief executives and members of their official families have responded to the charges brought against them, this new edition is designed to serve the same purpose as the original 1974 report: to provide the historical context and metric against which the actions of the current administration may be assessed.