Stephen Kruppen has written speeches for CEOs and doctors and even presidents.

He was a speechwriter for President Obama near the end of his second term.

What did you find the most ludicrous aspect of the West Wing's portrayal of presidential speechwriters?

The width of the hallways.

They weren't wide enough for us to have the Aaron Sorkin walk and talks that frequently.

He was given many difficult assignments while he was at the White House,

but there was one speech in particular

that he describes simply as

probably the only time in my career I have been

asked to write a speech that violated my values and offended my conscience.

I am a big fan of the Washington Capitals and have been since I was five years old, and I

was asked to write President Obama's speech congratulating

our arch rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, when they came to the White House with the Stanley Cup.

Oof. You know, I had to say nice things about this team that I hate. Did you get any like

subterranean digs in? Oh, absolutely, which was part of my own coping with the fact that this was the team that

stopped us from winning every year.

And did you get grief from your family about participating in that?

I got grief from my wife for having such a hard time saying nice things about people

who happened to wear a different colored shirt than my favorite players did.

She just doesn't get it.

She accurately thought that this was ridiculous, that I thought this was a challenging assignment on a moral level.

Okay. I'm Dan Heath, and this is what it's like to be. In every episode, we walk in the shoes of someone from a different profession, a TV meteorologist, a PR crisis consultant, an ice cream truck driver. We want to know what they do all day at work.

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