"As the world changed, our tax code has remained stuck in neutral. It has ballooned to 70,000 pages of rules and regulations that few people today actually understand."
Paul Ryan
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
What kinds of speeches get jaded professional speechwriters out of their seats? Speeches that don’t sound as if they were written by jaded speechwriters.
On the clichés, Pollyanna-isms, platitudes, bromides, and cotton-headed nonsense masquerading as insight in the idea-starved, creativity-deprived world of graduation talks.
"Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy, we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans, and set the tone for the next 300 years."
"Who knows? Maybe this completely different direct deal-based style of doing things can make a positive difference in this divided, failing Middle East region."
"We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership—based on shared interests and values—to pursue a better future for us all."
