美國情諮文撰稿人：33歲青年才俊

President Obama completed the State of the Union address on Jan 28 and the person penned it is a 33-year-old gentleman named Cody Keenan.

No amount of eye-squinting could decipher the details, but if anyone knew exactly what Obama intended to say in his annual address to the nation, it was chief speech writer Keenan.

The 33-year-old Keenan wrote what will be his State of the Union address numero deux after taking over duties last year from Jon Favreau, who left after five years in the job.

A Chicago native who once worked for the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Keenan joined Obama as an unpaid summer campaign intern in 2007 as Obama sought the Democratic presidential nomination.

At the end of the internship, he returned to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government to earn a master's degree in public policy, graduating in 2008.

When the White House called, Keenan jumped at the chance to join the administration, according to a 2010 interview he did with the Kennedy School.

Keenan's speechwriting career took off after he crafted the impassioned speech that Obama delivered at a memorial service for victims of a 2011 shooting spree in Tucson, Arizona, where former Representative Gabrielle Giffords was seriously injured.

Keenan, a former high school football player with a hipster-esque beard, also helped write the president's eulogy to Ted Kennedy in 2009.

Obama himself is an accomplished and prolific writer, and Keenan has said it is challenging to meet the president's high standards.

"Our jobs are remarkably like graduate school," Keenan said in the Kennedy School interview. "You get a paper assignment, you might pull an all-nighter or come in really early to finish, and you hand it in and then you get his marks back and find out whether (the President) likes it or not."

At Harvard, Keenan studied speech writing and delivery from public policy professor Steven Jarding.

Jarding described Keenan as passionate and fearless. The classes included mock interviews and presidential debates, drills that did not intimidate Keenan, he said.

"He would come to my office and ask, 'How do I get my foot in the door?'" Jarding told Reuters on Tuesday.

Images of Keenan donning a pirate costume and arm hook while chatting with Obama, and his flirtatious Instagram teases of the State of the Union address reveal a side that his former professor described: "He doesn't take himself seriously, and yet he is a serious person."

When Obama takes the stage Tuesday night, Keenan's skills will also be on trial, Jarding said.

"Even in a room (full of) exceptional students, I knew that this is somebody that we should watch, and that is something that we're going to see unfold tonight," Jarding said.

【新聞快訊】

美國總統奧巴馬當地時間28日晚發表年度國情諮文演說，幕後首席撰稿人是年僅33歲的基南(Cody Keenan)，據他的哈佛教授形容，基南是個“熱情且無所畏懼的人”。

來自芝加哥的基南去年從費夫如(Jon Favreau)手上接下本職。基南曾爲馬薩諸塞州已故參議員肯尼迪(Edward Kennedy)效力，接着於2007年夏天，奧巴馬尋求民主黨提名總統候選人之際，加入競選陣營擔任無薪實習生。

實習結束後，基南迴到哈佛大學肯尼迪政治學院攻讀公共政策，2008年取得碩士學位。

2010年應白宮號召，基南在肯尼迪政治學院面試，加入奧巴馬政府團隊。

自從2011年爲奧巴馬撰寫紀念亞利桑那州圖森(Tucson)槍擊案罹難者的激昂演說後，基南的撰稿事業便扶搖直上。

留着鬍子的基南曾是高中足球隊員，他也在2009年協助奧巴馬撰寫民主黨參議員泰德•肯尼迪(Ted Kennedy)的悼詞。

基南表示，奧巴馬本身就是撰稿的高手，要達到總統的高標準極具挑戰性。

他說：“我們的工作和研究生很像。”“你被分派到論文題目後，可能得熬夜、或是非常早起把它寫完，然後提交報告、得到分數後，就會知道總統滿不滿意。”

在哈佛就學時，基南的演說與寫作師承公共政策教授賈丁(Steven Jarding)。

據賈丁形容，基南是個熱情且無所畏懼的人。他說，無論是課堂上的模擬面試、總統辯論還是訓練，都沒有嚇倒基南。

賈丁說：“就算教室裏滿是優秀的學生，我都知道這個學生我們應該另眼相看。”