Cody Keenan — Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America - with Jen Psaki

A white supremacist shooting and an astonishing act of forgiveness. A national reckoning with race and the Confederate flag. The fate of marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act. GRACE is the propulsive story of ten days in June 2015, when Obama and his chief speechwriter Cody Keenan composed a series of high-stakes speeches to meet a succession of stunning developments.

Through behind-the-scenes moments—from Obama’s suggestion that Keenan pour a drink, listen to some Miles Davis, and “find the silences,” to the president’s late-night writing sessions in the First Family’s residence—Keenan takes us inside the craft of speechwriting at the highest level for the most demanding of bosses, the relentlessly poetic and perfectionist Barack Obama. GRACE also delivers a fascinating portrait of White House insiders like Ben Rhodes, Valerie Jarrett, Jen Psaki, and the speechwriting team responsible for pulling it all off during a furious, historic stretch of the Obama presidency—including a gifted fact-checker who took Keenan’s rhetoric to task before taking his hand in marriage. GRACE is the most intimate writing that exists on the rhetorical tightrope our first Black president had to walk, culminating with an unforgettable high point: Obama stunning everybody by taking a deep breath and leading the country in a chorus of “Amazing Grace.”

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Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in Chicago to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama's post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics, messaging, and current affairs, he is a partner at leading speechwriting firm Fenway Strategies and teaches a popular course on political speechwriting at his alma mater Northwestern University. He lives in New York City with his wife Kristen and their daughter Gracie.

Keenan is in conversation with Jen Psaki, who has been called “one of the best press secretaries ever” - a fitting accolade given that her tenure as the White House Press Secretary covered one of the most complex periods in modern presidential history. Prior to her time in the Biden White House, Psaki was a long-time advisor to President Barack Obama. She served as a traveling press secretary on his first long-shot campaign, and later served as the White House Communications Director for the final years of the Obama presidency. Psaki also served as the administration’s public face on the global stage during her tenure as the State Department Spokesperson, traveling the world with Secretary of State John Kerry. She is a former CNN political commentator and former Vice President of Communications and Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This fall, Psaki will join MSNBC where she will host a new streaming show that is slated to debut in early 2023.

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