Speeches last longer

Policies come and go, but speeches last forever.

In the Obama White House, Ben Rhodes started out as a speechwriter and became a policy guy.

Not necessarily a promotion, he suggests in an interview with the U.K.’s Evening Standard:

“Actually when I think about the politicians I admire in history, like JFK, I could not name any of his big legislative accomplishments. I think Obama had that impact on potentially billions of people around the world and so the speeches and the political identity in the long run are more important than the policies. It was the feeling he gave people, the inspiration he gave people.”

An agreeable line of thinking for speechwriters. But do we buy it? —DM