Former Wall Street Journal editorial writer William McGurn (search) replaced Michael Gerson (search) recently as chief speechwriter for President Bush. Ever since McGurn was accepted into the administration for Bush's second term, White House watchers have been keenly looking for any changes in the president's presentations.
"My job is not the president's image. My job is to give him the words to explain his policy in his language, in his tone of voice, in his logic," McGurn said in an interview with FOXNews.com. "It's not my speech; it's the president's speech."
Over the years, much ado has been made about whether the speechwriter actually "makes the man" who sits in the Oval Office, in terms of creating his persona.
"In general, writers and journalists tend to overestimate the role that speechwriters play in shaping a president's image," said Jennifer Grossman (search), a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush who is now director of the Dole Nutrition Institute. Most experts agree that rather than the speechwriter making the man, it's usually the other way around — at least in the modern day.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156156,00.html