Craig smith. [applause] a pleasure to see you. Thank you for being here tonight. Nice to be back in lawrence. You have written for the most powerful people in the world. Tell us about your early life and more about how you get to be a president ial speechwriter. The way i became a president ial speechwriter could only happen in america. I was an undergraduate debater where i got a lot of training, how to sift evidence, how to build arguments. I then went on to Communication Studies where i focused on the ancients, cicero on oratory, then institute of oratory, all those things are incorporated in the speechwriting craft. I then became a professor of Communication Studies focusing on rhetoric and public address, wound out after starting at San Diego State at the university of virginia. I was at the university of virginia in 1976. I was invited to the university of North Carolina of chapel hill to give a guest lecturer at 10 00 in the morning. Turned out gerald ford was lecturing on the c
Adequately supportive of that traditional ally. People look at the arab spring which has developed into something unsparing like. The question is how much did an american president have to do with that . What can an american president do in response to that . Those are legitimate questions and they are questions you can be sure historians will be debating for a very long time to come. But that in a curious way goes back to my point, like him or dislike him, whatever, the fact that barack obama, and whatever his legacy is will engage the interest and attention the support and hostility of historians and others for a long time to come only testifies to the significance of his presidency and the magnitude of what he has attempted. Richard norton smith is our guest talking about the reporting after the president s win on the trade bills and also the relation ship with the Supreme Court on samesex marriage and their reporting that this was his best week ever. We are discussing his legacy. Y
Oh, well, then i am preaching to the choir. I was going to tell you, i was looking at the Pulitzer Prize winners announced and there are five books nominated or that won Pulitzer Prizes. I was talking to frank reese, our partner in this, and i understand you know frank, we only have three of those five to show. And one of those was poetry and we dont do a whole lot of poetry. I told him we better do better this next year and get all five. Chris whipple is no stranger to awards. He is a filmmaker, writer, journalist. He started his career in washington d. C. With richard hol brook at Foreign Policy magazine. A correspondent for life magazine and the thing i am very envious of is 20 years at 60 minutes and at abc news and won multiple emmy and pea body awards. He won a columbia du pont journalism award. He is the executive producer of programs like spy faster, the cia, and the cross hairs. And the the gatekeepers how the white house chiefs of staff define every presidency which lefthand
Oh, well, then i am preaching to the choir. I was going to tell you, i was looking at the Pulitzer Prize winners announced and there are five books nominated or that won Pulitzer Prizes. I was talking to frank reese, our partner in this, and i understand you know frank, we only have three of those five to show. And one of those was poetry and we dont do a whole lot of poetry. I told him we better do better this next year and get all five. Chris whipple is no stranger to awards. He is a filmmaker, writer, journalist. He started his career in washington d. C. With richard hol brook at Foreign Policy magazine. A correspondent for life magazine and the thing i am very envious of is 20 years at 60 minutes and at abc news and won multiple emmy and pea body awards. He won a columbia du pont journalism award. He is the executive producer of programs like spy faster, the cia, and the cross hairs. And the the gatekeepers how the white house chiefs of staff define every presidency which lefthand
Here before . I am preaching to the choir. I was going to tell you i was looking, the Pulitzer Prize winners were recently announced. There were five books nominated for a pulitzer or won Pulitzer Prizes. I was talking to frank reese, our partner in this and i said i dont know. We must be slipping. We only have three of those five to show and one of those was poetry and we dont do a lot of poetry. I told him we better do well this next year and get all five. Chris whipple is no stranger to awards. Hes a filmmaker, writer, journalist, he started his career in washington dc with richard holbrook, Foreign Policy magazine. He was a correspondent for life magazine. I am very envious. He spent 20 years at 60 minutes, he was that abc news, won multiple emmy awards and peabodys, an investigative journalist, the journalism award, he is executive producer of programs like spymaster, cia and crosshairs and the gatekeepers how the white house chiefs of staff define every presidency which led to th