Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

Vidal’s quip satirizes the modern celebrity-politician and the professionalization of public communication. By claiming that public figures neither write their own speeches/books nor can reliably read them, he attacks a culture of image-management in which ghostwriters, handlers, and media consultants manufacture “authenticity” while the nominal author becomes a brand or mouthpiece. The joke also implies a decline in civic seriousness: if leaders outsource their words, they may also outsource thought, responsibility, and accountability. In Vidal’s broader critique of American politics and media, the line functions as a warning that public discourse can become performative—polished on the surface yet intellectually hollow.