Theodore C. Sorensen, former confidante and speechwriter to John F. Kennedy, was one of those talented few. He died today at age 82 in Manhattan following a stroke last week. His words and counsel gave “voice to ideas that shaped the president’s image and legacy,” said the New York Times.
In his obit, the Times noted: “Mr. Sorensen said he suspected the headline on his obituary would read: ‘Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy Speechwriter,’ misspelling his name and misjudging his work. ‘I was never just a speechwriter.’”
Mr. Sorensen can rest assured. Spoken through JFK's audacious voice, he proclaimed that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,” and encouraged the nation to “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” His legacy is secure.
Words from the Bible, the Gettysburg Address, Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill inspired his speechwriter’s mind. Sorensen personifies the adage that good writers borrow prose from other writers; great writers turn the borrowings into singular poetry.
Ironically, Sorensen received some of the highest praise from JFK archrival Richard M. Nixon. In 1962, Nixon said Sorensen had “a rare gift:” the knack of finding phrases that penetrated the American psyche, reported the Times. (Something, I might add, the White House sorely needs.)
Demonstrating that knack, Ted Sorensen once told presidential historian Michael R. Beschloss, "The liberal who is rationally committed is more reliable that the liberal who is emotionally committed."
What perfect advice and comfort to Barack Obama – another calm, rational man who occupies a White House in whose shadow a pensive portrait of JFK hangs, and where Sorensen's words reverberate still.
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