“The trick of speechwriting, if you will, is making the client say your brilliant words while somehow managing to make it sound as though they issued straight from their own soul,” said the writer Christopher Buckley, who was a speechwriter for the first President Bush. “Imagine putting the words ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’ into the mouth of Ron Paul, and you can see the problem.”

And, there are some critics of Obma's speeches:

Not everyone is so enamored. Mr. Obama excels at inspirational speeches read from a teleprompter before television cameras, critics have noted, but many of his other speeches on the campaign trail have failed to electrify.

Ted Widmer, a historian at Brown University, said that Mr. Obama’s speeches “were perfect for getting to where he was early in the race, but I think now that we’re in a serious campaign, it would be helpful to hear more concrete proposals.”

So, what about the other candidates. Who writes for Hillary and Edwards? Who writes for their spouses? What about Huckabee? His speeches, like Obama's, seem unique to his personality. (If you know, feel free to leave it in the comments so I can do a follow-up post.)

At the opposite end, I wouldn't be surprised to learn McCain has no speechwriter and pens his own rambling, sleepy lines. If McCain is serious about becoming the nominee, he'd do well to take a page from Obama's playbook and hire at 25 year old.