I guess it depends on the relative 'recent memory' ;) I was born in '75 and remember the Reagan era well. Whether you liked him or not - he impressively wrote n

I guess it depends on the relative 'recent memory' ;) I was born in '75 and remember the Reagan era well. Whether you liked him or not - he impressively wrote nearly all his own speeches, at least until his later White House years. He spent many years employed as a spokesman for GE and typically wrote all of his speeches by hand on yellow legal pads. An interesting sidenote - during his first campaigns, his opponents tried to damage him by saying all he knew how to do was make prepared speeches since he was a clueless actor from Hollywood. To combat that impression, he started making his appearances almost entirely Q&A so audiences could see he had his stuff down and could handle any questions placed to him. Hence Reagan's 'presidential nickname' the 'Great Communicator'. Fortunately Obama has 'Great Communicator' skills as well - it's certainly a lot more fun to have a president that can speak well ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan