East Bay native writes for Bush

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 7, 2008 | by Roman Gokhman

DUBLIN -- Chris Michel is in some ways a typical young man. The 26-year-old Dublin native did well at Dublin High School, went off to a good college and got a degree.

The degree led to an internship, which led to his job.

And that's where he is a lot different from most 26-year-olds in the country. Since 2004, he has been a member of a small team helping to write the words that come out of the mouth of President Bush.

On Saturday, Michel will be promoted to the No.2 speechwriter for Bush. According to one of his bosses, he will probably be the youngest person in White House history to hold that position.

"There are speechwriters across (Washington, D.C.) and the country who spend their entire lives trying to achieve what Chris achieved at 26 years," said Marc Thiessen, one of Michel's supervisors. "He's a superstar, and it's all due to his talent."

Not bad for a kid who was educated through Dublin's public school system. Michel and his sister Amanda were raised by parents Ed and Linda. At Dublin High School he got straight A's while competing on the school's golf team and speech and debate clubs.

"Chris has always taken advantage of opportunities and he's always done his best," Ed Michel said.

While Michel stood out academically, he was no bookworm, said his best friend since middle school, Eric Swalwell, now a deputy district attorney in Alameda County.

"To teachers he was the ideal student (and) to his friends he was modest and always quick with the jokes," Swalwell said.

Michel graduated from high school in 1999 and was accepted at several colleges before settling on Yale University.

"To say I had no idea where I would be headed is an understatement," Michel said.

He was always interested in politics and writing. Still, when he was applying to colleges, he thought he was going into medicine. In his first chemistry class at Yale, he figured out science wasn't for him. The summer following their sophomore year, Michel and Swalwell, who attended the University of Maryland, roomed together while interning in the U.S. Capitol.

"That's where he got his first taste of D.C. politics," Swalwell said. By his junior year, Michel chose history for his major.

He joined the school's newspaper, the Yale Daily News, and by his senior year was editor-in-chief. He "did well" in college, he said, finishing with a 3.96 grade point average.

Shortly before graduation, he was set to go into journalism and had interviewed at NBC, Time magazine and The Economist. But then he spoke to a Yale alumnus 40 years his senior, who was also at one time the newspaper's editor. He suggested Michel intern at the White House. Michel said he always considered himself a conservative and voted Republican. That has usually put him in an awkward position: It's hard to determine which community is more liberal -- the Bay Area or Yale.

"I've enjoyed being the odd man out," he said.

He's used to arguing with his friends over politics, but the arguments are usually civilized. Swalwell, for example, is the chairman for the Tri-Valley United Democratic Campaign.

The alum whom Michel spoke to set up a meeting with a White House recruiter in the spring of 2003, then he was offered an unpaid speech writing internship. He took the internship over a paid journalism job.

"It's hard to turn down the White House," he said.

The internship lasted three months and Michel began to apply for other jobs in Washington. Luckily, several researchers were leaving at the time and that opened up a position for him.

"It was the lowest job in the office," he said. "It was clerical and fact-checking."

A few months later, White Hose staffers were asked to either commit to stay on through the re-election campaign or step down. Several speechwriters decided to leave.

Michel met Bush for the first time in November 2003. He had suggested a script for a video Bush wanted to record for troops stationed overseas and was working in his office when the phone rang.

"The man on the phone said, 'The president wants to speak to you,'" Michel recalled.

He was escorted into the Oval Office for the first time, and he and Bush went through his script together.

"Above all, it's a thrilling experience working with a president of the United States," he said.

Michel was promoted to speechwriter in April 2004, and started "small" by writing remarks for a visit by the NBA champions and the annual pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey. He then moved on to writing scripts for radio and video addresses. He began working on Bush's re-election campaign by writing rally speeches. Since 2005, he and his coworkers have met with Bush once a week to discuss speeches.

"He's a very active editor," Michel said. "He will not just read what you put in front of him."

Parts of Michel's speeches have been used in three State of the Union speeches and two prime time speeches -- on the Iraq War and immigration.

"The president grew to like him immensely," Thiessen said.

Bush has a reputation for making slips in speeches, but Michel said that's no big deal.