[dfwgator]

I have an idea...call me crazy...but how about writing your own damn speeches.

[VitacoreVision]

Having speeches written for you is pretty common place.

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dfwgator: I have an idea...call me crazy...but how about writing your own damn speeches.
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[Lent]

Yeah there’s much to be said for the chain of potential problems when a speech is written or co-authoted . Because this wasn’t ascribed will the Jack’s go scouring Trump’s books which she helped co-write to find other examples of non-ascripted sayings?

[Company Man]

Betcha Ten bucks Don Jr. wrote his own damn speech.

[sockhead]

I have an idea...call me crazy...but how about writing your own damn speeches.

Even our Founding Fathers collaborated on speeches and documents. It's not a matter of not being able to think for themselves. Great speeches are like great music and lyrics, often the product of collaboration.

[little jeremiah]

I totally agree. At the very least, the candidate or person giving the speech makes a list of points, ideas, phrases, etc and then talks to write, who puts it together, person giving speech checks it, makes corrections, and voila.

[Enchante]

Good idea, but not many people except Churchill and Lincoln have really written their own speeches. In recent decades in the USA, speechwriters are nearly universal for political candidates who can afford them. Maybe candidates for local offices still write their own speeches, who knows?

[Steve_Seattle]

"I have an idea...call me crazy...but how about writing your own damn speeches."

Very few politicians write their own speeches. In this case, as best I can determine, Melania admired Moochelle (barf), and wanted to echo some sentiments from one of her speeches concerning the need for keeping ones word - sentiments that are common and banal, not high-blown rhetoric.

The speechwriter apparently didn't sufficiently re-phrase those comments (although they were not copied verbatim), leading to this "plagiarism" kerfuffle. I see this as the media awakening from its eight-year slumber; now, in the aftermath of Obama, anything Trump does will be made into a scandal. We're back to the Bush years.