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CNN Live Today

Interview With Speechwriter Daniel McGroarty

Aired January 29, 2003 - 10:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a new poll suggesting that President Bush's speech may have largely achieved his goal of bolstering American support for military action.
According to a CNN USA Today Gallup poll conducted following the speech, there was an immediate surge of people who felt the president made a convincing case for U.S. action in Iraq.

Forty-seven percent of those polled voiced support before the speech, 67 percent after. Before the speech, 52 percent said the case had not been convincingly made. After the speech, the skeptics dropped to 30 percent.

Now let's turn to our next guest for some insight and some expertise on the speech itself, how it was constructed, how it was delivered.

Daniel McGroarty is a former speechwriter for the first President Bush, and he is joining us from our Washington bureau as he did yesterday -- Dan, good morning once again.

DANIEL MCGROARTY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER: Hi, Daryn. Thanks for having me back.

KAGAN: A little bit of a late night, I am sure, as you stayed up and watched every last word.

MCGROARTY: It has been.

KAGAN: Interesting how President Bush chose to save the big, big topic, and that is making his case for going to war against Iraq until the end.

MCGROARTY: Well, I think you're right. He built that speech so that it followed kind of an incline path. The speech in the beginning part was a lot of base-touching. Not that these issues aren't important in terms of the economy, but clearly he saved the passion for the final push.

KAGAN: In fact, let's go ahead and let's listen to just a little bit of the part where he does talk about Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: So there was some specific information in the speech like that, and yet it seems like they're saving a lot of the information for next week, when Secretary of State Colin Powell will address the United Nations.

MCGROARTY: They are. Eight times -- we heard in that clip, eight times the president used some variation of "intelligence sources indicate," and he was quite specific. At one point, he said British intelligence indicates. Another time he talked about Iraqi defectors, and said "three Iraqi defectors," so the president clearly seems to be putting together a portfolio of intelligence that he is going to put out into the public.

KAGAN: Also interesting, and I guess in every State of the Union, there are some surprises. One as I was listening last night, I did not know that President Bush considered the AIDS crisis in Africa, which is so important, important to him as well. Let's listen to a little bit of how he talked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Tonight, I propose the emergency plan for AIDS relief, a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And in fact -- of course, this was very well planned, not only mentioned in the speech, but present in the chamber there was a prominent doctor from Uganda, which is a country that has tried to tackle the AIDS crisis more than some other African countries.

MCGROARTY: Right. I thought that was rather interesting. All the prognostication beforehand didn't indicate that we'd see something on an AIDS initiative like this. And also, if you start the speech from a blank page, there's a lot of different ways to put that initiative in play without having the president so passionately engaged. There is a back story here somewhere. Somehow, the president has really been brought on board to this initiative, and I thought that was a real kind of dramatic surprise to the speech.

KAGAN: We will be learning more about that in the future, no doubt. Overall, it just seems to me that President Bush has improved as a speaker in his two years in office.

MCGROARTY: Well, I think this -- I look at this speech and I look at the speech last year, and he dialed down the rhetoric, but he turned up the resolve. I think it was by design. I think the president is very comfortable getting his message out, and I think he -- he did what he needed to do last night. Strong speech, start of a big week.

KAGAN: Start of a very big week as he heads off to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dan McGroarty, thanks for joining us, appreciate your insight into how these speeches are put together.

MCGROARTY: Thanks, Daryn. Happy to be with you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 29, 2003 - 10:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a new poll suggesting that President Bush's speech may have largely achieved his goal of bolstering American support for military action.
According to a CNN USA Today Gallup poll conducted following the speech, there was an immediate surge of people who felt the president made a convincing case for U.S. action in Iraq.

Forty-seven percent of those polled voiced support before the speech, 67 percent after. Before the speech, 52 percent said the case had not been convincingly made. After the speech, the skeptics dropped to 30 percent.

Now let's turn to our next guest for some insight and some expertise on the speech itself, how it was constructed, how it was delivered.

Daniel McGroarty is a former speechwriter for the first President Bush, and he is joining us from our Washington bureau as he did yesterday -- Dan, good morning once again.

DANIEL MCGROARTY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER: Hi, Daryn. Thanks for having me back.

KAGAN: A little bit of a late night, I am sure, as you stayed up and watched every last word.

MCGROARTY: It has been.

KAGAN: Interesting how President Bush chose to save the big, big topic, and that is making his case for going to war against Iraq until the end.

MCGROARTY: Well, I think you're right. He built that speech so that it followed kind of an incline path. The speech in the beginning part was a lot of base-touching. Not that these issues aren't important in terms of the economy, but clearly he saved the passion for the final push.

KAGAN: In fact, let's go ahead and let's listen to just a little bit of the part where he does talk about Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: So there was some specific information in the speech like that, and yet it seems like they're saving a lot of the information for next week, when Secretary of State Colin Powell will address the United Nations.

MCGROARTY: They are. Eight times -- we heard in that clip, eight times the president used some variation of "intelligence sources indicate," and he was quite specific. At one point, he said British intelligence indicates. Another time he talked about Iraqi defectors, and said "three Iraqi defectors," so the president clearly seems to be putting together a portfolio of intelligence that he is going to put out into the public.

KAGAN: Also interesting, and I guess in every State of the Union, there are some surprises. One as I was listening last night, I did not know that President Bush considered the AIDS crisis in Africa, which is so important, important to him as well. Let's listen to a little bit of how he talked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Tonight, I propose the emergency plan for AIDS relief, a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And in fact -- of course, this was very well planned, not only mentioned in the speech, but present in the chamber there was a prominent doctor from Uganda, which is a country that has tried to tackle the AIDS crisis more than some other African countries.

MCGROARTY: Right. I thought that was rather interesting. All the prognostication beforehand didn't indicate that we'd see something on an AIDS initiative like this. And also, if you start the speech from a blank page, there's a lot of different ways to put that initiative in play without having the president so passionately engaged. There is a back story here somewhere. Somehow, the president has really been brought on board to this initiative, and I thought that was a real kind of dramatic surprise to the speech.

KAGAN: We will be learning more about that in the future, no doubt. Overall, it just seems to me that President Bush has improved as a speaker in his two years in office.

MCGROARTY: Well, I think this -- I look at this speech and I look at the speech last year, and he dialed down the rhetoric, but he turned up the resolve. I think it was by design. I think the president is very comfortable getting his message out, and I think he -- he did what he needed to do last night. Strong speech, start of a big week.

KAGAN: Start of a very big week as he heads off to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dan McGroarty, thanks for joining us, appreciate your insight into how these speeches are put together.

MCGROARTY: Thanks, Daryn. Happy to be with you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com