I'm writing this before THE BIG SPEECH tonight at the Democratic National Convention. I can't imagine sitting down with a blank sheet of paper trying to come up with a speech to accept the nomination for President. It would be agonizing. Here is the thought process I'd put into it:
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1. Well, I better not talk more than a half hour because I'll lose my voice...and everyone's attention. Keep it short. Short words, short sentences. Short. Don't Rabbit Trail all over the place.
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2. I suppose I could look at all the "old" speeches and see what they did. But this is a two edged sword...because even if I don't intentionally plagiarize something, I may still unintentionally do so because my own ideas about what to say will naturally be in the same ball park, since these speeches say basically the same things but in different ways. I did this in third grade. I had to write song for music class and it sounded curiously like some a minuet I learned playing piano.
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3. Do I drum up personal hard luck stories of people whom I have met on the campaign trail? (You know... like the poor mother in Idaho with 10 kids and a poodle who lives on SSI since she got hurt from her job at the plant before it closed and 2000 people were left jobless....and then her husband got killed when their trailer fell on him when he was trying to put in new copper pipe after thieves stole the old pipes?)
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4. Do I tell people what I really want to do with the country or hold back a bit so as not to upset my political enemies who are chomping at the bit to criticize every idea I have and every word I say?
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5. How much religion should I throw in? The whole God Bless America thing is wearing thin on me. It seems self serving somehow. Maybe Tiny Tim's "God Bless us--- Everyone." But that's plagiarism. Oh well.
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6. And how much personal stuff do I put in? Thanking people is a slippery slope. You always forget someone.
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7. Bill Clinton was always good with a clever turn of the phrase... like last night's 'power of example' versus 'example of our power' thing. And who can forget Kennedy- "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country!" Aunt Millie picked up on that and I remember as a kid, whenever Millie would get ready to leave our house after a party, she'd say... "Well, I'd better go...and see what I can do for my country!" And she'd laugh.... usually she was full of Schlitz beer, so it was funny when she said it. Probably not as funny reading it here.
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8. Finally, I'd need a big ending. The media is so overhyped on everything, it's hard to really suprize anyone anymore, or come across with something genuinely new. Maybe that's why they all just still go with God Bless America, anyway. I'd probably end up saying that, too, simply because I have spent so much time writing it, that I just want to get done.
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