The Speech Joe Biden Has Been Preparing For His Entire Life

“I would expect him to follow the same process he’s used for years,” said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and a close Biden ally who said they spoke on Sunday. “You ask outside advisers. Message, pollsters, political advisers — they give you sort of framing. Then you go away, and you take a crack at it. Then you share it with the folks who know you — I mean, literally his sister — with your sister, with your spouse, with your closest political advisers. They give you some input. Then you go and think about it some more. And then you give your speech.”

While every prominent political figure becomes a practiced public speaker through sheer force of repetition, the act is, for Mr. Biden, almost definitional. Negotiating a stutter since his youth, Mr. Biden carved out a national reputation built in large measure on the power, preponderance and more-than-occasional precariousness of his words.

His belief in his own skills as an orator — his ability to persuade, to move, to own the room — has been a through-line of his public arc, often leading him to seek his own counsel despite any guidance he might absorb from advisers.

One former Senate speechwriter recalled Mr. Biden describing their working relationship like this: “I’m going to compare you to a golf coach,” Mr. Biden told the aide. “If you try to change my swing, we’re not going to get along.”

Matt Teper, a top Biden speechwriter during his vice presidency, suggested Mr. Biden’s attention to detail could border on the obsessive. “You have an engaged principal,” he said. “You’ve also got someone who, on a word level, is caring about things that sometimes you’re like, ‘well, let’s leave the commas to me.’ But by and large, his engagement makes things better.’”