While preparing to leave his post as President Obama’s head speechwriter, a position he has held for the past eight years, Jon Favreau ’03 reflected on his time at the White House in an interview on NBC’s TODAY show. Having started his tenure at just 22 years old, Favreau is among the youngest to ever hold the position of chief speechwriter for the president.
“All the time I think I’m in over my head,” said Favreau, now 31, commenting on his unusually young age. However, his reputation for crafting President Obama’s most powerful and influential speeches—including inauguration addresses, a Nobel prize acceptance speech, and speeches in the face of crises, such as the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn.,—proves Favreau’s effectiveness as a communicator.
Upon graduating from Holy Cross, Favreau wrote campaign speeches for then-senator John Kerry, before teaming up with Obama in 2005. Now, the president has come to regard Favreau as both an outstanding speechwriter and his “mind reader.”
Named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009, Favreau will leave the White House on March 1. He plans to open a consulting business in Washington D.C., and also intends to pursue a career in screenwriting for television. Of course, Favreau will continue to keep in touch with Obama, and joked that when the president calls, he will “not send him straight to voicemail.”
This ‘Holy Cross in the News’ item by David Cotrone ’13.
