USATODAY has a profile of the Kerry speechwriting process, and tells us that he alone wrote the first draft, longhand, before turning it over two his four-person speechwriting team. Snippet:

John Kerry could call upon a four-person campaign speechwriting team. He was paying Bob Shrum and other strategists with reputations for crafting sparkling lines. Family members and leading Democrats were eager to advise him on what to say.

But the nomination acceptance speech that Kerry delivers here Thursday night started with a draft that was all his own. He wrote it in his own hand on a legal pad, mostly in the comfort of his Massachusetts homes in Boston and Nantucket.

After three months of thinking sporadically about the vital speech, the senator sat down in earnest to write about three weeks ago, according to interviews with Kerry confidants familiar with how the speech evolved. They asked not to be identified, citing a campaign policy of staff anonymity except for designated spokespersons.

When his first try was on paper, Kerry still didn’t turn the process over to a committee. He reached out for suggestions through a hub-and-spoke system. He was the hub. Friends, consultants and others whose opinions he respected spoke directly with him. He didn’t ask them for polished lines or complete sections.