000			02107 a2200181 4500
999			_c50279 _d50279
008			180926b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a978-1-4767-6992-9
082			_a328.33092/Swa
100			_aSwaim, Barton _932272
245			_aThe speechwriter: a brief education in politics
260			_aNew York _bSimon & Schuster _c2015
300			_aix, 204 _bHard Bound
520			_aBarton Swaim was struggling to find an academic job—he’d recently received a PhD in English—when he sent his resume to Mark Sanford, the conservative and controversial governor of South Carolina. He thought he could improve the governor’s writing and speeches. On the surface, this is the story of Sanford’s rise and fall. But it’s really an account of what happens when a band of believers attach themselves to an ambitious narcissist. Everyone knows this kind of politician—a charismatic maverick who goes up against the system and its ways, but thinks he doesn’t have to live by the rules. Swaim describes what makes people invest in their leaders, how those leaders do provide moments of inspiration, and then how they let them down. The Speechwriter is a funny and candid introduction to the world of politics, where press statements are purposefully nonsensical, grammatical errors are intentional, and better copy means more words. Through his three years in the governor’s office, Swaim paints a portrait of a man so principled he’d rather sweat than use state money to pay for air conditioning, so oblivious he’d wear the same stained shirt for two weeks, so egotistical he’d belittle his staffers to make himself feel better, and so self-absorbed he never once apologized for making his administration the laughing stock of the country. In the end, it’s also an account of the very human staffers who risk a life in politics out of conviction and learn to survive a broken heart.
650			_aPolitics and government, _932273
650			_aSpeechwriters _932274
942			_2ddc _cBK