美国情咨文撰稿人：33岁青年才俊

President Obama completed the State of the Union address on Jan 28 and the person penned it is a 33-year-old gentleman named Cody Keenan.

No amount of eye-squinting could decipher the details, but if anyone knew exactly what Obama intended to say in his annual address to the nation, it was chief speech writer Keenan.

The 33-year-old Keenan wrote what will be his State of the Union address numero deux after taking over duties last year from Jon Favreau, who left after five years in the job.

A Chicago native who once worked for the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Keenan joined Obama as an unpaid summer campaign intern in 2007 as Obama sought the Democratic presidential nomination.

At the end of the internship, he returned to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government to earn a master's degree in public policy, graduating in 2008.

When the White House called, Keenan jumped at the chance to join the administration, according to a 2010 interview he did with the Kennedy School.

Keenan's speechwriting career took off after he crafted the impassioned speech that Obama delivered at a memorial service for victims of a 2011 shooting spree in Tucson, Arizona, where former Representative Gabrielle Giffords was seriously injured.

Keenan, a former high school football player with a hipster-esque beard, also helped write the president's eulogy to Ted Kennedy in 2009.

Obama himself is an accomplished and prolific writer, and Keenan has said it is challenging to meet the president's high standards.

"Our jobs are remarkably like graduate school," Keenan said in the Kennedy School interview. "You get a paper assignment, you might pull an all-nighter or come in really early to finish, and you hand it in and then you get his marks back and find out whether (the President) likes it or not."

At Harvard, Keenan studied speech writing and delivery from public policy professor Steven Jarding.

Jarding described Keenan as passionate and fearless. The classes included mock interviews and presidential debates, drills that did not intimidate Keenan, he said.

"He would come to my office and ask, 'How do I get my foot in the door?'" Jarding told Reuters on Tuesday.

Images of Keenan donning a pirate costume and arm hook while chatting with Obama, and his flirtatious Instagram teases of the State of the Union address reveal a side that his former professor described: "He doesn't take himself seriously, and yet he is a serious person."

When Obama takes the stage Tuesday night, Keenan's skills will also be on trial, Jarding said.

"Even in a room (full of) exceptional students, I knew that this is somebody that we should watch, and that is something that we're going to see unfold tonight," Jarding said.

【新闻快讯】

美国总统奥巴马当地时间28日晚发表年度国情咨文演说，幕后首席撰稿人是年仅33岁的基南(Cody Keenan)，据他的哈佛教授形容，基南是个“热情且无所畏惧的人”。

来自芝加哥的基南去年从费夫如(Jon Favreau)手上接下本职。基南曾为马萨诸塞州已故参议员肯尼迪(Edward Kennedy)效力，接着于2007年夏天，奥巴马寻求民主党提名总统候选人之际，加入竞选阵营担任无薪实习生。

实习结束后，基南回到哈佛大学肯尼迪政治学院攻读公共政策，2008年取得硕士学位。

2010年应白宫号召，基南在肯尼迪政治学院面试，加入奥巴马政府团队。

自从2011年为奥巴马撰写纪念亚利桑那州图森(Tucson)枪击案罹难者的激昂演说后，基南的撰稿事业便扶摇直上。

留着胡子的基南曾是高中足球队员，他也在2009年协助奥巴马撰写民主党参议员泰德•肯尼迪(Ted Kennedy)的悼词。

基南表示，奥巴马本身就是撰稿的高手，要达到总统的高标准极具挑战性。

他说：“我们的工作和研究生很像。”“你被分派到论文题目后，可能得熬夜、或是非常早起把它写完，然后提交报告、得到分数后，就会知道总统满不满意。”

在哈佛就学时，基南的演说与写作师承公共政策教授贾丁(Steven Jarding)。

据贾丁形容，基南是个热情且无所畏惧的人。他说，无论是课堂上的模拟面试、总统辩论还是训练，都没有吓倒基南。

贾丁说：“就算教室里满是优秀的学生，我都知道这个学生我们应该另眼相看。”