The Top 10 Lessons I Learned on the Kerry Campaign

By Adam Frankel, WireTap. Posted November 22, 2005.

One day in early 2004, while staring at my computer screen for the latest updates from the presidential race, I decided to join the Kerry campaign. There was only one problem. I was in London attending graduate school. I was enriching my mind thousands of miles from where my heart wanted to be.

But I picked up the phone anyway and called some friends who were my bosses during my internship in President Clinton's speechwriting office. I had written speeches since that internship, and I consulted my friends before sending in an application. After taking their advice, I flew home for an interview, took a timed writing test, and heard nothing back for several weeks, and then months.

After several months of waiting, I did get that long-awaited phone call and was told to "report for duty" in four days. I quickly arranged to put my studies in London on hold and began one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

*****

It all began with a bad addiction. I need politics like some people need their weekly fix of Laguna Beach. I also have a lot of admiration for Senator Kerry. I was initially brought onto the Kerry campaign like a lot of people are -- for a trial run of a few months, before I was actually paid.

I was eventually hired to do speechwriting research. The purpose of my research was to identify local color -- or LOCO, as we referred to it. LOCO can help a candidate connect with an audience by mentioning something that usually, only locals would know about, like their high school baseball team or pizza place.

When John Kerry's schedule picked up in July, so did my workload. We brought three interns on board, and I oversaw them. I started doing more writing -- like speeches, talking points or Op-Ed's for John Kerry on everything form social security and the "senior squeeze" to health care and the war in Iraq.

Speechwriting is where policy, politics, and press all come together. The top speechwriter has the final say on a speech before it goes to the candidate and speechwriters often decide what to include and not to include. So it's not just a writing job -- a trusted speechwriter has lots of influence. The speechwriters on the Kerry campaign were a gifted group of poets, dreamers, jokers and schemers.

What did I learn from being a speechwriter? I developed a keen ear for a good line -- whether delivered by a Republican or Democrat. And I grew more skeptical of political promises. I developed a strong belief that, however influential, a speech is just a speech. What matters most is action.

My job was thrilling, frustrating, disappointing, and exhilarating at the same time -- and I'm grateful for every minute of it. In the year since this campaign ended, I've given a lot of thought to what the whole experience meant to me and I wanted to share the lessons I learned, even though they are drawn from my own experience, which was necessarily limited.

Here are the "Top Ten" lessons I learned on the campaign:

1. The world is run by 20-somethings.

You may not believe me, but it's true! Only 20-somethings have the energy, freedom, and tolerance for such a low-paying, exhausting, and demanding job. Sure, the top jobs are mostly held by more experienced political folks, but junior staffers do the bulk of the work and influence many of the decisions.

Why do young people go to Washington? After all, politics today is mostly uninspired and divisive and our political leaders are often intellectually dishonest or morally corrupt. Getting elected to something -- whether it's Student Government or the Presidency -- may put you in a leadership position, but it sure doesn't make you a leader.

So why should you get involved in public service? Well, partly, because it's a chance to "compete in the arena;" partly, because we all have a responsibility to do so; and partly, because it's just so important. The difference today between having good leaders and not having them is the difference between war and peace, life and death. It's the difference between a satisfying, rewarding life and a miserable one, the difference between good health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, enlightenment and ignorance. Ultimately, it's the difference between right and wrong.

2. Focus on the Big Picture.

There's a big difference between having a vision, and supporting a bunch of policies. When I was a senior in college, working on a thesis about the global AIDS pandemic, I met with a former Dean of the Yale School of Public Health. He asked me, "What's the goal of the fight against AIDS?" I said, "To increase condom distribution around the world." He said, "That's a tactic. What's the goal?" I tried again: "To increase our support for the Global AIDS Fund so countries can tackle their own epidemics." He said, "That's also a tactic." "The goal," he said, "is to stop the spread of AIDS and care for those who have it." That is the big picture, the vision that everyone is striving to achieve.

Adam Frankel, 24, lives in New York City. In addition to being a speechwriter, he worked in the state department and was an AIDS activist in Asia and Africa.

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