奥巴马就职典礼：载入史册的演讲 ... 27岁的年轻人在星巴克制作

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简介

被认为是总统读心者的首席演讲撰稿人
通晓前任演讲的年轻助手

 

• 被认为是总统读心者的首席演讲撰稿人


• 通晓前任演讲的年轻助手

 

当奥巴马走上讲台来发表他的就职演说，一个站在人群中不知名的小伙会对其报以尤为密切的关注。他的剪短的头发，刮过又新长出的胡须和他孩子气的面孔，使他看上去与众多的贵宾格格不入，然而作为演讲的合作者，这个小伙更有资格来见证这一历史时刻。

27岁的乔恩·法夫罗Jon Favreau，用奥巴马自己的话来说，是总统的读心者。他是白宫有记载以来最年轻的首席讲稿撰写人，而且，抛开年龄不谈，还是讨论起草今日演讲内容的核心人物，对之有重要的影响。

对一个政客来说，声望的提高很大程度上建立在他的演说能力上，而奥巴马更是深谙此道。但对今日的期待远高于以往。

不仅奥巴马以林肯的就职演说为灵感为自己设立了一个极高的标杆——承认自己读到它们时有些“害怕”，而且，因为他在一场经济危机和两场战争中开始他的任期，他明白他需要在雄辩的辞令中开始总统生涯，打动并激励美国人民。

讲话的成败可能决定了公众对他的头100天有何反馈。就像富兰克林罗斯福的名言“我们唯一恐惧的就是恐惧本身”对其生涯所起的作用。

奥巴马的幕僚透露出讲话的主题将会是恢复责任心——既是指华盛顿的责任，又包含每个普通人加入进来的责任。Rahm Emanuel，奥巴马的幕僚长官，谈到了一种“责任文化”，“不仅每个美国人都应具备，领导更是应率先垂范。”

在撰写这份被寄予很高期望的演说辞上，奥巴马倚靠Favreau，他在4年前在约翰克里的失败竞选上几乎是巧合般地发现了Favreau，"Favs"从此以后便潜移默化地学习奥巴马的演讲的句式结构和节拍韵律。他记着2004年民主党全国代表大会上的讲话，正是这次讲话将奥巴马带入众人瞩目的中心，据说他去哪里总是带着奥巴马的自传：父亲传下的梦想。最终，在去年11月他起草就职演说的初稿时，他能够像一个最完美的模仿者那样“召唤”出他的头的声音。

这种技能在18个月残忍的总统竞选上基本是每日必修，Favreau每天基本工作到早上3点，沉醉在咖啡因和红牛的阴霾中搪磨明日的政治游说，以玩摇滚乐队的电子游戏作消遣，他为这种半夜的截稿冲刺生活创造了一个词汇：“绝命赶工”。

他一路赶出了几乎所有奥巴马令人难忘的演讲。他关在德梅因的咖啡店里撰写了那篇使爱荷华州传投奥巴马的草稿。对于总统选举，他写了两篇讲稿：一篇为庆祝胜利，另一篇则为落败而备。得知结果后他向他最好的朋友发去电子邮件：“伙计，我们赢了，哦，我的天。”

年少得志和任务繁重的角色给这位27岁的年轻人带来了压力。在12月，他和他朋友嘲笑一张硬纸板刻成的希拉里图片的照片被传到Facebook上，Favreau的手放在她的胸部，这使他大为难堪。

奥巴马自己也是一个颇有造诣的作家，与他的读心者的起草过程则是协作性的。就职演说在他们之间交换了四到五次，随之而来的是以小时记的谈话，总统候选人谈论他的观点，Favreau在电脑上做笔记。

于是Favreau花数周的时间在调查研究上。他的团队访问了历史学家和演讲作家，研究危机周期，聆听历任的演说集。准备就绪后，他呆在华盛顿的星巴克咖啡店里完成了初稿。而草稿在其通往国会大厦的道路上仍要被不断地修改。

奥巴马的读心者又一次赶过了一个截稿期。

Jon Favreau, head speech writer for US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history.

Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is the youngest chief speechwriter on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it.

For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones.

It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admitting to feeling "intimidated" when he read them. It is also that, as he begins his term with the US in an economic crisis and two wars, he knows he needs to kick start his presidency with a soaring rhetoric that both moves and motivates the American people.

The tone of the speech could be decisive in determining how the public responds to his first 100 days, as Franklin Roosevelt's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" helped to determine his.

Obama aides have let it be known that a key theme will be restoring responsibility - both in terms of accountability in Washington and the responsibility of ordinary people to get involved. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, talks of a "culture of responsibility" that would "not just be asked of the American people; its leaders must also lead by example."

In composing the high notes of the speech, Obama has leant on Favreau, whom he discovered almost by chance four years ago when the younger man was working on John Kerry's failed presidential bid. "Favs" has since studied Obama's speech patterns and cadences with the intensity of a stalker. He memorised the 2004 speech to the Democratic national convention which first brought Obama into the limelight. He is said to carry Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, wherever he goes. As a result, last November when Favreau sat down to write the first draft of the inaugural address, he could conjure up his master's voice as if an accomplished impersonator.

That skill had been put to almost daily use in the 18 months of brutal campaigning on the presidential trail. Favreau would be up most nights until 3am, honing the next day's stump speeches in a caffeine haze of espressos and Red Bull energy drinks, taking breaks to play the video game Rock Band. He coined a phrase for this late-night deadline surfing: "crashing".

He crashed his way through all Obama's most memorable speeches. He wrote the draft of one that helped to turn Iowa for Obama while closeted in a coffee shop in Des Moines. For the presidential election, he wrote two speeches: one for a victory, one for defeat. When the result came through, he emailed his best friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God."

The tension between such youthful outbursts and his onerous role has sometimes cost the 27-year-old. In December, pictures of him and a friend mocking a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton at a party, Favreau's hand on her breast, were posted on Facebook to his huge embarrassment.

Obama is an accomplished writer in his own right, and the process of drafting with his mind reader is collaborative. The inaugural speech has shuttled between them four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer.

Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft. The end result will be uttered on the steps of the Capitol.

Obama's mind reader has crashed his way through yet another deadline.