Interesting piece by Christi Parsons in the LA Times, describing the drafting process for President Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo this past June.  Here’s how it begins:

“Reporting from Washington — He sat with his legs crossed in an armchair in the Oval Office, his brow furrowed. Aides clustered on the couches around him. They could see black scratch marks all over their proposal for the most sensitive speech of his young presidency — his long-promised address to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

For weeks, they had toiled over the text. Now, some stole glances at the lead writer of the address, 31-year-old Ben Rhodes, as the lengthening silence confirmed that their best shot had fallen short.”

Evidently, the effort to pull the speech together involved a team within the White House — “the Cairo cell” — and a wide-ranging braintrust beyond it — “scores of experts and advocates” who sent in “memos, polling data and letters in hopes of influencing the speech.”  But Rhodes held the pen, and with it, the executive speechwriter’s familiar obligation to serve as mediator,  negotiator, diplomat, judge, and harmonizer as well.

Yet, the president found the first draft limp, too cautious, too inoffensive.  According to the article,

“he told his staff that he intended to address some of the most sensitive issues in foreign policy — terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the inflammatory rhetoric of many Islamic leaders — in terms that would grab the world’s attention.”

Some might think it would have been devastating for Rhodes to have labored so hard on such a critical address, only to meet with the president’s disappointment.  But no.  One participant in the Oval Office review session remembered this detail:

“At a certain point, Rhodes had stopped scribbling notes and just focused on the president’s face.

Later, a friend bumped into the young speechwriter. “He looked relieved,” the friend said, “even liberated.”"