Barack Obama began working on his inaugural address almost two months ago, according to senior aides to the incoming president. The week before Thanksgiving, the president-elect sat down with his speechwriting team, including top writer Jon Favreau, to sketch out broad themes of what he wanted to say today. Favreau completed a first draft by the first week of December. Shortly before Obama left for Hawaii for his Christmas vacation, the incoming president went over the draft with Favreau, who wrote a second version of the speech over the holidays. Yet aides say it was Obama who ultimately wrote the bulk of the speech.  Two weekends ago, Obama holed up in his room at the Hay Adams Hotel in Washington, where he and his family stayed earlier this month, and worked on what aides described as “extensive writing” on his own. “He had very strong ideas early on about what he wanted to convey,” a senior Obama aide tells Newsweek. The speech you’ll hear today is more than 60 percent Obama’s own words, the aide adds.

Obama has said he re-read inaugural addresses delivered by Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, whose speech he described as “intimidating.” Indeed, upon completing the bulk of the speech today, Obama asked Ted Sorenson, Kennedy’s chief speechwriter, to read a draft of his speech and give input. According to Obama aides, the speech was also read by historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the Lincoln biography “Team of Rivals,” which has been mentioned as one of Obama’s favorite books, and David McCullough. It’s unclear how much advice the group gave Obama and his team, though the broad overviews of the speech provided in advance by aides do hint at the sweeping rhetoric of JFK and Lincoln, two presidents who led the country at transformational times.

In the speech, according to aides, Obama will acknowledge that America faces difficult challenges ahead. But, citing the nation’s history of overcoming past struggles without taking “short cuts,” the president-elect will “express optimism and hope” that the nation can rise to the challenge of the “enormity of the task we are facing,” says a senior Obama aide. “The speech will describe the moment we’re in, and the spirit required to emerge from this crisis even stronger and more united than before,” says a senior Obama aide.

Over the last week, the president-elect has gone through several read-throughs of the speech, which aides say will run between 18 and 20 minutes. The Obama team is expected to release excerpts of what exactly the incoming president will say later this morning.