Jacob Rigg

Jacob Rigg (born 1982) is a British speechwriter and Liberal Democrat. He became well-known during and following the United States Presidential election of 2008, particularly amongst the British media, due to his part in the Obama campaign team. He contributed in a voluntary role as a writer of the 'Unity' address given by Presidential candidate Barack Obama at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in January 2008, and as an advisor of other speeches for the then Presidential candidate. Previously, Rigg had also helped British Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne in the running of his campaign for the 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election, in which he lost by a narrow margin of 1.2% to rival candidate Nick Clegg. He also prepared a concession speech for Obama to use in the event that he didn't win the presidential election. Speaking of his own style, Rigg told of how:

Philip Pullman once said: 'Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.' I couldn't agree more. I've taken ideas from Solzhenitsyn, King Lear, and even a Lacoste advert before.

—Jacob Rigg, from The Guardian

When pressed on whose speeches Obama's are compared to, Rigg admits that "People used to mock me for this, but if you’re interested in writing speeches, read Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Most of the stuff that's out there, the rudimentary tricks, Aristotle cornered the market in, thousands of years ago", On the subject of writing for politics, Rigg is currently giving talks in parts of the United Kingdom. He is also currently working for the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and continues to be a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.
Controversies
On 16 March 2009 and again on 1 April 2009, Newsweek's The Gaggle blog alleged Rigg was not actually involved in the Obama campaign, dubbing him "A Faux Favreau" and citing White House spokesman Tommy Vietor saying:

Every word of this story is fabricated. None of us had even heard this individual's name until we read these claims in the paper. Apparently he's a talented fiction writer.

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