After his speech, Ted Sorensen, former adviser to President John F. Kennedy, said he hoped he had expressed the importance of words in the political world.
“Words matter, whether you’re a speech writer, a president or a journalist,” Sorensen said.
Sorensen addressed an audience of more than 100 at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum on Monday.
The speech, sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism’s Crain Lecture Series, focused on the importance of the written word and its uncertain future, with a sprinkling of political jokes and puns.
“Outstanding newspapers are falling left and right,” Sorensen said. “I use those two terms advisedly.”
He explained how the role of words had informed and impacted his book, “Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History,” which details his childhood as the son of Nebraska Attorney General Christian A. Sorensen and his work as an adviser to President Kennedy.
In the book, Sorensen describes his role as an adviser and the amount of influence he had in the Kennedy administration.
“We met in the middle,” he said during the speech. “He had some influence on me and I on him.”
Laura Olson, Medill ’08, helped research for the book during the summer of 2005 and flew in from Harrisburg, Penn., to hear Sorensen speak.
“I was doing research at the Nebraska Historical Society,” the former Daily managing editor said. “It was quite a blessing.”
Sorensen said one of the reasons for his support of President Obama was that his use of words is similar to that of Kennedy’s. He said Obama’s and Kennedy’s speeches do not “talk down” to their audiences. Sorensen also compared Obama’s judgement to Kennedy’s, citing it as a reason for his trust in Obama.
“Judgement is the single most important quality a president needs, which is why I support Obama,” Sorensen said.
He described the importance of good judgement and the role it played in the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He detailed the initial precautions Kennedy took to ensure that the Soviet Union would not know the United States had photographed the missiles in Cuba.
Though students in attendance knew only what they had learned in history books about Kennedy, many older audience members had vivid memories of those 13 days in 1962.
“It was just the scariest thing,” Judy Challed, 69, said. Challed and her husband traveled an hour and a half from Richmond, Ill., to hear the speech.
After the speech, Sorensen answered questions from the audience, one of which addressed the role of optimism in the Obama administration and whether it leaves room for an informed audience.
“Sometimes it’s necessary to temper hope with a little skepticism, a little reason,” he said.
Weinberg junior Gina Mouser said she appreciated his support of pragmatism in politics.
“I personally would call myself on the conservative side,” she said. “I was skeptical of it when everyone started buying the Obama phenomenon. It was nice to hear (Sorensen), who is pro-Obama, support asking questions.”
