Professor Tuman Comments on Speech-writing for Presidents

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL -- Both John Tuman, the chair of UNLV’s political science department, and his brother Joe Tuman, a professor of speech communication at San Francisco State University, say contemporary presidents often give speechwriters or advisers a framework of ideas upon which they write an address. The brothers say politicians then generally add to or subtract from drafts during editing. “Then the president is responsible for and accountable for what he says,” Joe Tuman said. “They become his words.”