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Source Material: His Heart's Abundance: Notes of a Nixon Speechwriter
Author(s) -
GAVIN WILLIAM F.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.0360-4918.2001.00176.x
Subject(s) - rhetoric , reputation , politics , quality (philosophy) , pragmatism , miami , political rhetoric , political science , sociology , law , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , environmental science , soil science
Richard M. Nixon used rhetoric as a means of solving specific political problems. Yet, despite his reputation as a pragmatist and a “nuts‐and‐bolts” politician, he was always asking his speechwriters for an elusive, never‐defined but, to him, all‐important quality he called “heart.” The least experienced member of his speech‐writing team, William F. Gavin, was able to provide that quality, especially in Nixon's acceptance speech in Miami Beach in 1968. Gavin describes what it was like to write for a man who hid his heart from public view but always wanted “heart” to inspire his rhetoric.