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Bob Shrum is a platonic ideal of a guest for this podcast…someone who, as a teenager, met JFK at the 1960 Democratic Convention and decades later worked as a strategist for several presidential candidates, big city mayors, Governors, and Senators. In this conversation, we talk his early passion for politics, the fortuitous chance to get his foot in the door as a speechwriter for a NYC mayor, how he connected with Senator Ted Kennedy and helped write his famous ’80 Convention Speech, and Bob’s 3 decades as a leading Democratic admaker and strategist – plus his current role as Director of the USC Center for the Political Future.

IN THIS EPISODE

Bob’s early interest and passion for politics…

Memories of meeting JFK as a teenage volunteer at the 1960 Democratic Convention…

Bob gets a foot in the door as a speechwriter for NYC Mayor John Lindsay…

Bob’s take on what makes for a good speechwriter…

How taking the wrong job diverted Bob from politics from several years…

How Bob entered the political orbit of Senator Ted Kennedy…

Bob talks his role helping write Senator Kennedy’s most famous political speech from the 1980 Democratic convention…

Bob on what a Reagan vs Kennedy race might have looked like…

Bob talks some of his early consulting clients including Senators John Glenn and Barbara Mikulski…

Bob’s longtime relationship with British Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair…

Memories of presidential campaigns from Gephardt ’88 to Gore ’00 and Kerry ’04…

Bob talks hanging up his political spurs after the ’04 campaign and his current role at the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California…

Bob games out how he’d approach the 2024 election were he a Biden strategist…

AND Bertie Ahern, Dick Aurelio, banging pots and pans, Ehud Barak, Don Beyer, Barbara Boxer, Brandeis University, Pat Buchanan, George W. Bush, butterfly ballots, Pat Caddell, Camden Yards, carousing and hijinx, Jimmy Carter,  Bob Casey Sr, Bill Clinton, Alan Cranston, Culver City, Ron DeSantis, Tad Devine, David Doak, Mike Donilon, East Los Angeles Junior College, Esquire Magazine, feedback loops, Diane Feinstein, Tom Foley, Orville Freeman, Jim Gilmore, giving up the ghost, Richard Goodwin, Jeff Greenfield, Averill Harriman, Kamala Harris, Hubert Humphrey, the Lexington Market, Joe Lieberman, Abraham Lincoln, John Lindsay, Douglas MacArthur, Mac Mathias, Kevin McCarthy, George McGovern, mind’s ear, Amber Miller, Walter Mondale, Tom Morgan, Adam Nagourney, New Times, Tip O’Neil, Carey Parker, Reince Priebus, robot rules, Chuck Robb, Pierre Salinger, John Sexton, Jeff Shesol, Sargent Shriver, Shrumalot, John Smith, Steve Smith, Adlai Stevenson, Bob Squier, Suite 9300, Laurence Tribe, Harry Truman, Tommy Tuberville, Mark Warner, Cornel West…& more!