Former Clinton Speech Writer Will Become Fellow at IOP This Fall

Former chief speechwriter for President Clinton Michael Waldman will become a fellow at the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Kennedy School of Government this fall.

For the past five years, Waldman has worked behind the scenes, crafting the president's speeches.

At the IOP, Waldman will lead a one-and-a-half hour, non-credit study group that will meet twice a week. The study group will focus on the art of speechwriting.

"The presidential speech is not just nice rhetoric and pretty words," Waldman said.

Kathy McLaughlin, the executive director of the IOP, said the fellowship program furthers one of the primary goals of the IOP, to bridge the gap between academia and practical politics.

Waldman said he made the decision to leave his post at the White House several months ago, and was told of the IOP opening in the spring.

According to Waldman, he seized the opportunity to become a fellow because it offered him a chance to take a break from the world of professional politics.

"It is a wonderful opportunity for someone like me to come out of the high pressure cauldron," he said.

In April, he visited the IOP and met with the institute's director, former senator Alan K. Simpson, and a committee of eight students actively involved in the IOP who interviewed him for the job.

But that was not Waldman's first visit to the IOP. In 1994, he gave a speech at the IOP Forum about campaign finance reform.

Waldman says he is enthusiastic about his new post at the IOP, but admits he will miss working with President Clinton.

"President Clinton is somebody who has a deep appreciation of what speechwriters do," Waldman said.

Prior to working for Clinton, Waldman headed the Citizen's Congress Watch, a public interest group founded by Ralph Nader.

Waldman is not the first presidential speechwriter to make the transition from the White House to the IOP.

Raymond K. Price Jr., speechwriter for President Nixon and Hendrik Hertzberg, speechwriter for President Carter, both served terms as IOP Fellows.

Waldman began working for President Clinton during his 1990 presidential campaign. In 1995, he became Clinton's chief speechwriter.

Waldman has written some of Clinton's most prominent speeches, including his past four State of the Union addresses.

Waldman plans to move to Cambridge with his three children and his wife, Liz Fine, who is a U.S. Deputy Attorney General.

Students will get to meet Michael Waldman, along with the other five IOP Fellows, during the annual Open House Sept. 28.

Waldman attended Columbia University as an undergraduate and went on to New York University Law School.