Richard Blumenthal, and his speechwriters: Some ‘splainin’ to do
Richard Blumenthal is the front-runner in the race for Christopher Dodd’s Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate. Or at least he was, before being called out on his repeated lies …
“Don’t change yourself … Come home to yourself”
John Jacob Scherer IV, best-selling author and founder of the Scherer Leadership Center; commencement address, Roanoke College, Roanoke, Va., May 1, 2010
“Laugh as much as you can because there will be plenty of moments to make you cry”
Commencement address by Irvin S. Naylor, York College of Pennsylvania, York, Pa., May 15, 2010.
VS editor David Murray to conduct speechwriting ‘jam session’ in D.C.
The next stop on my continuous Vital Speeches Speechwriting Jam Session World Tour is the Washington Speechwriters Roundtable, next Friday, May 21. If you can’t make it there, write me …
Vital Speeches Quote of the Week
Lena Horne goes out sad and candid: “I was the kind of black that white people could accept … I had the worst kind of acceptance.”
“Give it to them double dirty”
George S. Patton was more profane than George C. Scott. Because he believed “eloquent profanity” worked.
Tip: Tell your audiences the speech is available on the website
Toward the end of a recent speech, London Mayor Boris Johnson came right out and said it. Said what? Said the text will be posted online—and told his audience what …
Shel Holtz rebuts PowerPoint pilers-on; and I rebut Shel Holtz
Communication guru Shel Holtz loves him some technology, and so I wasn’t surprised last week when he rebutted the pilers-on to a strong New York Times piece about how much …
Division of Cautionary Tales, Humor Department
Dick Gephardt wins the award for biggest bomb ever, but several other disasters are right behind. Don’t let it happen to you!
Speechwriters, if you don’t have anything smart to say, don’t say anything at all
Almost 20 years ago now I was attending a meeting of the now-moribund Chicago Speechwriters Forum, and a veteran libertarian speechwriter twice my age and thrice my intellect was railing …