Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
yahoo!
Comments
FeedMan of Many Words
Presidential speechwriter James Humes recaps history as he made it.
(page 1 of 3)
J
ames Humes could fill a book—or more—with stories from a career spent in the inner circles of presidents, prime ministers and personalities most of us can only read about. Actually, he’s already filled 30-some books, has another five in the works, and continues speaking, teaching and impersonating his worldly subjects of interest. In the process, he’s leaving his own well-documented legacy.
A piece in some of history’s finest puzzles, Humes was one of 70 in the Oval Office when astronaut Neil Armstrong and his crew made contact after touching down on the moon in 1969. Today, he’s in Merion where he and his wife, Dianne, visit longtime friend Jane Krumrine every year to spend time with their four grandchildren. When not visiting Krumrine, Humes’ daughter, Mary, and her kids live in England. In the winter, they visit their grandparents in Pueblo, Colo., to ski.
Humes once called Chestnut Hill home for 30-plus years. An Oct. 28 visit to the area had him speaking on Ronald Reagan at the Union League in Center City. On Dec. 4, he’ll speak at the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia. In between, he celebrated his 74th birthday on Oct. 31, then watched the national election run its course.
“For the Republicans, it’s been a bad year—period,” concedes the diehard GOP supporter. “The mainstream media has portrayed [Barack Obama] as another Kennedy. It’s like he was born in a manger and can walk on water. With Obama, everyone sees and wants change—and who has ever been against hope?”
Though biased, those words carry some serious weight coming from such a noted scholar and historian. Humes was a speechwriter for five U.S. presidents—Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Reagan and the elder George Bush. A lawyer and former state legislator, he’s served the White House and the U.S. State Department. He’s been a communications adviser to IBM and DuPont. He’s the former Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania at the Fels Institute of Government, and the Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian. He’s now the Schuck Fellow for the Study of Statecraft at the University of Colorado.
Renowned for his impersonations of Winston Churchill and others, Humes was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his historical works on Churchill and William Shakespeare. And his observations of President George W. Bush zero in on national security and the war in Iraq.
“He had more guts than his father,” Humes says. “Saddam Hussein said he’d bomb us on five occasions. Was he a bragger? As chief executive and commander in chief, the president has to be concerned with the security of his people.”
As for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, Humes says it was an insult to women to think that we, as a nation, needed a woman on the ticket just because she’s a woman. “Margaret Thatcher wasn’t prime minister because she’s a woman,” he says. “She’s prime minister because she’s good.”
(It should be noted, of course, that Humes made these comments before Sen. John McCain named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his GOP running mate.)
Humes has spent a lifetime telling the stories of others. And though one of his tomes is the autobiographical Confessions of a White House Ghostwriter, he requires repeated prompting to get him to tell his own story.
“I’m a bit of a ham,” he finally admits. “But usually, I say enough in the books.”
