Barton Swaim. Photo: Yevette Shaver.
In 2010, Governor Mark Sanford faced the media, who were eager to question him about an adultery scandal. His unscripted solution to explain his actions was to compare himself to the biblical figure of King David.
“A number of people on the staff said ‘Governor now is not the time to be comparing yourself to the great men of history,'” says former speechwriter Barton Swaim. “It took some convincing for him to see that.”
When the now former South Carolina Governor was said to be “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” his staff were left holding the bag. Communications officer Swaim was one of them. With a PhD in English, Swaim had hoped he could provide the words to connect the people with policy. As he writes in his memoir, “The Speechwriter,” Swaim found a boss who wanted instead to load up the public with cliches.
“It wasn’t a collaborative thing, it was your attempt to kind of guess exactly how he would write it,” Swaim tells Steve Fast.
What Sanford would have written, Swaim claims, didn’t always make sense. For instance, Sanford wanted to refer to Rosa Parks even though his political actions didn’t reflect the policy points or situation.
“If you could ever find a way to work Rosa Parks into the material, you did.” Swaim says. The job took a toll on his political ideals.
“I think a lot of people who work in politics have this struggle where you come to a point where you think is everything we’re doing just for the sake of a talking point,” Swaim says. “You do wonder if it is anything more than just rhetoric.”
Listen to the interview: Barton Swaim on The Steve Fast Show
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