Who is Obama's ghostwriter?

[hiaasenrocks]

I'm working on an article about people who say they write but really just outline, dictate and pass on to a writer. I'm wondering if anyone here knows the name of the ghostwriter who did Obama's books. I have found some vague references to it (in the WaPo and NYT, for example) but as usual, it's hard to find a ghostwriter's name.

Thanks.

And if you want to attack me for using this as one of my precious three OPs, don't bother; I rarely start threads anyway. :)

[YOY]

1. either Bill Cosby

or Wishbone...

[dchill]

2. He didn't need one...

But Hillary's ghostwriter was Barbara Feinman Todd - but Hillary didn't tell you that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4646416

:)

[jillan]

9. That's because Todd was a ghostwriter.

Ghostwriters don't get mentioned.

[dchill]

11. True, but it's one thing to accuse...

someone of using a ghostwriter without evidence that one was used, and another to use a ghostwriter and claim that one wrote the book herself, which is what Clinton did. This OP is trolling.

[Occam Bandage]

3. I'm finding it hard to even find a reference to a ghostwriter. Dreams From My Father was

written in '95, before his political career began, and when he was still an academic (as President of the Harvard Law Review), so I'm certain he wrote that. As for The Audacity of Hope:

http://speechwriting-ghostwriting.typepad.com/speechwriting_ghostwritin/2006/10/barback_obama_w.html

[Adelante]

4. His first book was not ghost-written

I don't know about his second book, which was more of a campaign type book. He was likely to have had someone working with him on that, I would think, but don't actually know.

[mtnsnake]

5. Who is the guy suspected of writing the speeches that Obama & Governor Deval Patrick share?

David Axelrod, isn't it?

[Recursion]

8. He's not "suspected"; he's their speechwriter

You do know that politicians don't write their own speeches, right?

[mtnsnake]

14. "You do know that politicians don't write their own speeches, right?"

Well, according to the Obama people on DU, Obama writes all his own speeches. That's why I posted what I did about Axelrod ;)

[NYCGirl]

19. I guess that's why I posted this article about his speechwriters weeks ago, eh?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756/output/print

[boston bean]

15. Obama said he writes most of his speeches, then on a private plane told a reporter

that he doesn't.

so..............

[Recursion]

16. He's a lot more involved than most politicians

I posted a thread yesterday about how the speechwriting process works in most campaigns since it seems like DUer's mostly haven't worked on them.

[jackson_dem]

23. Yup. He is Obama's Rove

[Recursion]

6. From everything I heard he wrote them

I don't think he had a ghostwriter. And I loved Dreams From My Father.

Now that I think of it, I think Audacity was ghost-written. I didn't like it nearly as much, too...

[Khaotic]

7. Bob the Builder?

Can We Fix It?



YES WE CAN!!!!

Get a life ... he comes up with most of the content in his speeches.

[democrattotheend]

10. Pretty sure he wrote the first book himself

Given that it was 15 years ago, when he was just out of law school.

Not sure about the second book...CNN said last night that he is said to have written significant chunks of the second book, or something like that.

[MethuenProgressive]

12. Matthews on MSNBC this AM: Obama's second book obviously collaborative effort

If you've read them, you'd know they were really done in a different "voice".

[QC]

13. You don't need a ghostwriter when God speaks through you! n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

21. ahhhhahahah true that

:rofl:

[still_one]

17. don't tell anyone, but it is Barrack. He does most of Obama's speeches also /nt

[ElsewheresDaughter]

20. Ted Soensen wrote all of Obama's speeches since before Boston

[still_one]

22. I guess he wrote his books, and also probably his thesis at Harvard also /nt

[NYCGirl]

24. No, it's this guy:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756/output/print

Jon Favreau has the worst and the best job in political speechwriting. His boss is a best-selling author who doesn't really need his help, having written the 2004 speech that catapulted him onto the national stage. At the same time, the same boss also happens to be capable of delivering a speech in ways that can give his audience the goosebumps.

But Barack Obama is more than a little busy campaigning across Iowa and New Hampshire right now. So it was Favreau who led the team that wrote Obama's victory speech in Des Moines last week—a moment that prompted the TV pundits to drop months of skepticism about Obama's candidacy to make breathless comparisons with the Kennedy era.

For Favreau, a 26-year-old jean-clad staffer (who is no relation to the comedian of "Swingers" fame) who worked in Obama's senate office, the contrast with the 2004 election could not be starker.

Back then Jon Favreau had one of the worst jobs on the Kerry campaign. He was the kid who put together "the audio clips"—the bundle of overnight stories that helped the campaign's senior staff get up to speed on the latest radio news. A graduate of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., he had interned in Kerry's senate office and joined the campaign right out of college.

When Kerry's campaign showed signs of imploding—before recovering again in Iowa—Favreau was one of the few people left in the office when they needed a new speechwriter. "They couldn't afford to hire one," he recalled. "And they couldn't find anyone who wanted to come in when we were about to lose to Dean. So I became deputy speechwriter, even though I had no previous experience."

When Kerry lost in 2004, Favreau thought he was finished with politics. "After the Kerry campaign, after all the backbiting and nastiness, my idealism and enthusiasm for politics was crushed," he said. "I was grateful for the experience I got, but it was such a difficult
experience, along with losing, that I was done. It took Barack to rekindle that."

[ElsewheresDaughter]

25. no this guy....Passing the Torch: Kennedy's Touch on Obama's Words

:hi: :hi:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4259093&page=1



It's no accident the Kennedy magic has infused itself into the campaign of Barack Obama.

Theodore "Ted" Sorensen, the adviser whom John F. Kennedy once called his "intellectual blood bank," is lending his unabashed support -- and eloquence -- to the Obama campaign.
Photos
In the face of '08, Camelot divides over political endorsements.

The Kennedy Connection

Oprah, another gushing Obama supporter, may have star power, but Sorensen has brain power.

At the age of 24, he joined the staff of the newly elected Sen. John F. Kennedy and later helped him win the presidency, calling on Americans to pass the torch to a new generation.

The legendary speechwriter helped Kennedy craft the now-famous 1961 Inaugural address in which the new president proclaimed, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis -- when Sorensen was 34 -- he penned the letter to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that historians say saved the world from nuclear destruction.

Today, at 79 years old and blind, Sorensen has a new mission: to resurrect Camelot. And it seems the Obama campaign is listening.

"I've given them a phrase or suggestion or two," Sorensen admits.

As for all the comparisons that have been drawn between Obama and Kennedy, "I probably started it," he told ABCNEWS.com
Multimedia
Your Candidate? Find Your Presidential Match!

Torch Passed to Obama's Speechwriters

Sorensen has not only given his support and advice to the Obama camp, he's grown close to the senator's young speechwriters as well.

The candidate's deputy writer -- Adam Frankel -- assisted Sorensen with his memoirs, which Harper Collins will publish in time for his 80th birthday in May.

"We've become close friends," Sorensen said of Frankel, 26, one of Obama's wordsmiths.

"He knows me and my style and JFK's style and his speeches. It's surprising the little touches that creep in to whatever he writes for Obama."

[NYCGirl]

26. "I've given them a phrase or suggestion or two," Sorensen admits.

He's not Obama's writer — Favreau is head writer.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

28. ahh thank you

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. Arthur M. Schlesinger

[HeraldSquare212]

27. He said yesterday that he wrote two books.

I don't think he would say that if they were ghostwritten, at this point.