Are speechwriters the better angels of their speakers’ nature?

(Or something like that?)

In a Salon.com piece about President Obama vs. “speechwriter Obama,” speechwriter Dan Conley suggests they are.

Speechwriter Obama understands the zeitgeist while President Obama seems a prisoner to it. Speechwriter Obama slyly dropped praise of American atheists into a speech about race and religion. President Obama was forced to react to the “ground zero mosque” controversy, and stumbled. Speechwriter Obama promised that his presidency would be the time when the planet would be healed. President Obama signed on to more offshore drilling shortly before the Gulf oil spill and has stood mute while Russia burns and Pakistan drowns.

Speechwriter Obama was a deep reader of Nietzsche, Freud and Sartre as a student. President Obama barely has time to floss and watch Sportscenter. And it shows.

Speechwriters, is there anything to Conley’s characterization of Obama’s inner speechwriter as his better half? Weigh in here ….