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Shrum's own words

Stephen Pollard

Wednesday, 26th September 2007

Daniel Finkelstein has the scoop on the debt owed by Gordon Brown's speech to Bob Shrum:

"First of all there are plenty of phrases pretty directly lifted from speeches made by Shrum clients, many of which he admits he wrote. Here are just a few, there may well be many more:

Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I know my own imperfections. I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy.
Gordon Brown: Sometimes people say I am too serious and I fight too hard and maybe that's true......
Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down. "
Gordon Brown: This is my pledge to the British people: I will not let you down.
John Kerry 2004 nomination acceptance speech: And what can I say about Teresa? She has the strongest moral compass of anyone I know
Gordon Brown: And this is my moral compass
Bill Clinton's State of the Union 1995: As we move into this next century, everybody matters; we don't have a person to waste.
Gordon Brown: This is the century where our country cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone

Then there's the structure. So many Shrum speeches begin with a story about the candidate's mother and father and what they taught him. So did Brown on Monday. And the pointing out John Smeaton was straight out of a Clinton State of the Union speech."

Danny ends by saying:

The only way in which this wasn't a Shrum speech? It wasn't good enough.

There's another difference from the usual Shrum speeches. This one is for a Presidential client (well, Prime Ministerial, but you get the drift) who's going to win.