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Podcast: City Cast Chicago
Episode: Obama’s Chief Speechwriter on the ‘Battle for America’
Description: Few people probably remember that in 2015, the Supreme Court’s decisions on same sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act, as well as the racist shooting rampage that killed nine African Americans at a Charleston church all happened within 10 days. Cody Keenan remembers. He was former President Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter, which meant he had to craft the right words for Obama to deliver. In his new book, “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America,” Keenan details his struggle to write speeches about those events and outlines how he collaborated with the country’s first Black...