Our show today is about the book, White Houst Ghosts: Presidents and their Speechwriters, with the distinguished author and journalist Robert Schlesinger.

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Mr. Bob Schlesinger will talk about his book, his renowned fathe, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and the presidency. Schlesinger reveals, in intimate detail, how presidents from FDR through the present day got their most important messages across through their speechwriters.

Bob Sherwood, Raymond Moley, Harry Hopkins, Emmet Hughes, Peggy Noonan, Sam Rosenman. Clark Clifford, Ted Sorenson, Bryce Harlow, Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Richard Goodwin, Ray Price, Pat Buchanon, and  William Safire, are some of the big-name writers that graced the White House from 1933 until today.

Mr. Robert Schlesinger, a U.S.News and World Report deputy editor, oversees all opinion editorial content.  Spearheading the opinion section of www.usnews.com, Schlesinger solicits op-eds from writers and bloggers nationwide. Schlesinger came to U.S.News & World Report as a freelancer and blogger for a variety of publications, including Salon.com, Economist.com, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times Magazine. His work has also appeared in The Washington Monthly, the Weekly Standard, People, Campaigns & Elections, Washington DC Style, DC Magazine, the Washington Examiner, the Boston Globe Magazine, George, and the AARP Bulletin. 

Prior to joining U.S. News, Schlesinger covered national security and public policy issues for the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau. He previously served as chief congressional correspondent at Voter.com, political editor at The Hill newspaper, and researched advisers to presidential candidates at the Center for Public Integrity, co-writing “Under the Influence,” a 1996 report on presidential campaign advisers.  He is also co-founder and co-contributor of the blog, RobertEmmet, which covers topics from national security to entertainment and culture. He teaches political journalism at the Boston University Washington Journalism Center. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia. A New York City native, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1994.

Our show will attempt to explore these questions:

• How important are speechwriters to a president?
• Who was the first presidential speechwriter
• Who were the best writers among the presidents?
• What was it like being the son of Arthur Schlesinger Jr as a father?
• What made FDR’s team of writers special?