Sorensen gave JFK's oratory its polish

[Omaha Steve]

Full story (free registration required):http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=2186810


Published Sunday
June 11, 2006

Sorensen gave JFK's oratory its polish

BY HENRY J. CORDES


WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The soaring words of President John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address even today ring like political poetry, still able to stir the soul more than 45 years after he spoke them.


Ted Sorensen

While Kennedy delivered what has been called one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century, exactly who wrote those words is the subject of historical debate.

The latest historian to weigh in, after viewing all surviving drafts, last year published a book that credits primary authorship to Nebraska native Ted Sorensen.

Not that you'll ever get the longtime Kennedy aide to admit that.

"Ask not," he quipped.

It's typical Sorensen.

For four decades, he has tiptoed that line, careful about saying anything publicly that might detract from the legacy of one of America's most beloved and tragic political figures.

While most often referred to as "Kennedy's speechwriter," Sorensen was much more: a trusted adviser and confidant. It's been said that other than JFK's brother Bobby Kennedy, no one was closer to the president than the bespectacled, bookish Lincoln native.

Now 78 and in the twilight of life, the New York City resident can't hide the pride he feels to have been one of the pioneering spirits behind the New Frontier.

During a presidency that lasted a brief but action-packed thousand days, Sorensen rarely was far from the levers of power as Kennedy steered America carefully into a difficult era of civil rights, shot for the moon and stared down the Soviets.

In fact, of all the writing Sorensen did, probably none was more important - not just to the president, but perhaps all mankind - than a letter Sorensen drafted to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

His words helped defuse that 13-day superpower showdown, pulling the world back from the brink of nuclear annihilation.

"Of course, that's what I'm proudest of," Sorensen said. "Never had this country, this world, faced such great danger. You and I wouldn't be sitting here today if that had gone badly."

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans . . ."

[Kutjara]

1. So JFK's words were written by the urbane and eloquent....

...Sorensen, while Shrub's are written by the scriptwriter for Porky Pig.

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

[Gman]

2. I think of Letterman's "Great Presidential Speeches"

every night the world gets to see what an idiot this guy is.

[Kutjara]

3. I often wonder if, when Shrub's speeches are dubbed...

...into foreign languages on news programs around the world, they have to find a really stupid-sounding person do to the voiceover.