Not again: A New Foundation Revisited

by Walter Shapiro
Politics Daily
May 5, 2009

http://www.waltershapiro.com/5547/not-again-a-new-foundation-revisited

Excerpt:

Long ago, in a different century and galaxy, I proudly served the nation as a (warning: anti-climax ahead) second-tier speechwriter in the Carter administration. My historic role was sufficiently minor that if I had written a thin memoir of my White House tenure, it would have been entitled, "I Was There Too. Really I Was." In fact, like many junior aides in government, the closest I came to shaping history was to be in the room -- third door on the left along the corridors of power -- when someone else made an epic decision.

Yes, I was Zelig and Forrest Gump rolled into one. For I was present at the creation when Carter speechwriter Rick Hertzberg (now a New Yorker writer) hit upon that amazingly resilient presidential phrase, "the New Foundation."

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