Washington Monthly - September/October 2022 - 124
by the echo of the Kennedy vision, " updated
... for a new time, " when he heard
Obama's call for a truly United States
of America at the 2004 Democratic
National Convention.
In 2007, when Senator Obama announced
his candidacy for president,
Keenan joined the campaign speechwriting
team, and when Obama defeated
John McCain in 2008, Keenan
became part of the White House
speechwriting staff, headed by Jon
Favreau. After proving himself as the
" workhorse of the team " and earning
high praise for his speechwriting skills,
Keenan was promoted to chief speechwriter
when Favs left in 2013.
Grace is framed around a thicket of
pressing and competing speechwriting
deadlines facing Keenan and his team
during 10 hectic days in June 2015. It
was referred to as " SCOTUS week " -the
Presidential draft statements in the
event of both victories and defeats of
those cases had to be prepared enough
in advance to give Obama a chance to
shape them to his liking. As if that
weren't enough pressure, on June 17,
the Wednesday of SCOTUS week, the
White House and the nation were
stunned by the news of a mass shooting
in a Black church in Charleston that
took the lives of nine of its members,
including its pastor, Clementa Pinckney.
After much discussion, the president
decided to deliver Pinckney's eulogy,
on Friday, June 26-one day after
the Supreme Court ruled in favor of
Obamacare and the same day the Court
issued its monumental decision in favor
of same-sex marriage.
At the start of that week, Keenan and
How could a 35-year-old
white kid from the North Side
of Chicago possibly be equipped
to write speeches for the
first Black president-a man
who spoke the language of
both sides of the Windy
City and who found his
muse in the music of Miles,
Coltrane, and Ray Charles?
week the Supreme Court was expected
to issue rulings on a slew of cases before
its summer recess. The outcome of
several of those cases would either codify
or obliterate two of Obama's top policy
goals. King v. Burwell would determine
if Obamacare, which had become
a lifeline to health insurance coverage
for millions of poor and middle-class
Americans since its passage in 2010,
would survive. Obergefell v. Hodges
would decide if LGBTQ Americans had
finally won their decades-long struggle
for an equal right to marriage.
124 September/October 2022
his team were faced with a complicated
maze of questions. Could the speechwriters
meet these impossible,
simultaneous
deadlines? Would the
Court rule in favor of
the hopes of the president
and millions of
Americans? And would
Obama follow through
on his inclination to sing
" Amazing Grace " during
the eulogy for Pinckney?
Keenan also wondered
if he could meet
the expectations of the
Charleston eulogy, given
his scant understanding
of the Black church
and the yawning gap between
his and the president's
backgrounds. He recalled an earlier
meeting with Obama in which the
president asked him, " You know what
they say about Miles Davis? " Keenan
did not. Obama said,
It's the notes you don't play. It's
the silences. That's what made him
so good. I need a speech with some
pauses, and some quiet moments ...
Because they say something too. I
want you to go home, pour yourself
a drink, and listen to some Miles
Davis ... and find me some silences.
That was a great teaching moment
that set the stage for a highly praised
Charleston eulogy resulting from one
of Keenan's most intense collaborations
with Obama.
W
hile Keenan's memoir sheds voluminous
light on the drama and
tension surrounding those 10 tumultuous
days in June 2015, it also reminds
me of the principled leadership and
close foxhole friendships forged during
my time as Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter.
Every White House speechwriting
team has a unique cadence
and personality. But Keenan's description
of the early-morning senior staff
meetings in the chief of staff's office,
late nights sequestered in the West
Wing " Speechcave, " high-stakes Oval
Office meetings with the president,
and working trips aboard Air Force
One all have the unmistakable ring
of authenticity.
Grace is a refreshing departure from
the flood of scandalous " literary " flotsam
that typically washes up in the wake
of the transfer of power. This book might
not make breaking-news headlines, but
it just might restore a little faith in the
presidency and the backstage men and
women who work around the clock to
fulfill the chief executive's promises to
the American people. Cody Keenan's
memoir is essentially a love story. The
love of a president for his country, his
family, and his staff through some of the
toughest political and personal fights
imaginable. The love Keenan and his
White House compatriots had for serving
in the Obama White House and playing
a vital role in helping the president
bend the arc of history a little farther
toward justice. And, finally, Keenan's
love for a former White House researcher,
now his wife, Kristen Bartoloni. Like
the president he served, Keenan tells
his story with conviction, compassion-
and amazing grace.
Terry Edmonds is the former chief speechwriter
for President Bill Clinton. A member of the
Washington Monthly board of directors, he was
a 2021 senior fellow in Harvard's Advanced
Leadership Initiative.
Washington Monthly - September/October 2022
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