Tonights guest was a fulltime speechwriter for president gerald ford and a consulting writer to george h. W. Bush. He served as founding president of the freedom of Expression Foundation in washington, d. C. He has won numerous awards for his research, including an award for political communication. It is with pleasure that i welcome dr. Craig smith. Would you please welcome dr. Craig smith. [applause] yous nice to be back in lawrence. Back in lawrence. You have written for some of the most powerful people in the world. Can you tell us about your early life and how you got to be a president ial speechwriter. Dr. Smith the way i became a president ial speechwriter could only happen in america. I was an undergraduate, i got a lot of training in how to make cases, how to sift evidence and build arguments. I went on for a phd in communication studies, where i focused on aristotle. All of those things are incorporated in the speechwriting craft. I then became a professor of communication st
Welcome dr. Craig smith. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome dr. Craig smith. [applause] dr. Smith, its a pleasure to see you, thanks for being here with us tonight. You have written for some of the most powerful people in the world. Can you tell us a little bit about your early life and tell us more about how you get to be a president ial speechwriter. I became a president ial speechwriter can only happen in america. I was an undergraduate debater got a lot of training in how to make cases, how to sift evidence, how to build arguments. I then went on for a phd in Communication Studies where i focused on the ancients, aristotle on rhetoric, cicero on oratory. All those things are incorporated in the speechwriting craft. Professor of a Communication Studies, focusing on rhetoric and public address. At sanp after starting diego state, i wound up at the university of virginia and i was at the university of virginia in 1976 and i was invited down to the university of North Carol
Your television provider. Announcer next, correct smith, the author of confessions of a president ial speechwriter. He discusses writing for president s ford and george h. W. Bush. He also evaluates the speaking styles of President Trump and the democratic president ial candidate. The robert dold institute of politics hosted this 50 minute event at the university of kansas. Tonights guest was a fulltime speechwriter for president gerald ford and a consulting writer to george h. W. Bush. Tonight he served as founding president of the freedom of Expression Foundation in washington, d. C. He has won numerous awards for his research, including an award for political communication. It is with pleasure that i welcome dr. Craig smith. Would you please welcome dr. Craig smith. [applause] you have written for some of the most powerful people in the world. Can you tell us a little bit about your early life and how you got to be a president ial speechwriter . Dr. Smith the way i became a presiden
Tonights guest was a fulltime speechwriter for president gerald ford and a consulting writer to george h. W. Bush. He served as founding president of the freedom of Expression Foundation in washington, d. C. He has won numerous awards for his research, including an award for political communication. It is with pleasure that i welcome dr. Craig smith. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome dr. Craig smith. [applause] dr. Smith, it is a pleasure to see you and thank you for being here tonight. You have written for some of the most powerful people in the world. Can you tell us about your early life and how you got to be a president ial speechwriter. Dr. Smith 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 in how to make cases, how to sift evidence and build arguments. I went on for a phd in communication studies, where i focused on the ancients. All of those things are incorporated in the spe
Library and has gone through and found a very interesting documents that other people have not seen before and he has done that at other president ial libraries. Combined with that, he has also mined the resources of the archives on various evangelical organizations that have become involved in politics. And in addition to that, on top of his research skills, he is an excellent writer. Ive had the privilege of reading many of his books, including the one thats just come out. And i can tell you that as much as i followed the subjects and have done my own research there were many points i came across new information and said wow, that really explains whats going on. So if you want to understand the difference in the United States in the 1970s, and 1980s, and in case you have forgotten, there were significant differences. And you want to know about the sort of transition to the time when jimmy carter was president to the time when Ronald Reagan was president. If you want to understand the