WASHINGTON, Pa. (Sept. 21, 2011) —Washington & Jefferson College (W&J) welcomes Eleanor Clift, a political journalist, author and television pundit who reports on the White House, Washington politics, and a variety of national issues as a contributing editor for Newsweek and longtime panelist for “The McLaughlin Group.” Clift will be the Woodrow Wilson Scholar in Residence at W&J Sept. 26-29.
The College community invites the general public to attend Ms. Clift’s lecture “Analyzing the Politics of the Day,” Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Howard J. Burnett Center’s Yost Auditorium. Clift’s lecture is free and open to the public.
“We are very fortunate to be able to host Ms. Clift,” W&J President Tori Haring-Smith said. “As we head into an election year, this is an opportunity for our students to hear first-hand about how Washington works and what role the media plays in presidential elections, as well as get an insider’s analysis of the current political landscape and learn about the making of public policy.”
Clift’s column appears weekly on the Newsweek/Daily Beast website. She is a regular panelist on the nationally syndicated show, “The McLaughlin Group,” and has appeared as herself in several films, including “Independence Day,” “Murder at 1600 Pennsylvania,” and “Dave,” as well as the CBS series “Murphy Brown.” She was a key member of Newsweek's 1992 election team and followed Bill Clinton's campaign.
Clift and her late husband, Tom Brazaitis, wrote two books: “War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics” and “Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling,” which tracks the rise of women in politics and features Hillary Clinton's trailblazing run for the U.S. Senate while she was still living in the White House as First Lady.
Clift is the author of “Founding Sisters and the 19th Amendment,” the story of suffrage, and “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death and Politics,” which is a story of personal loss set against the backdrop of the public debate over the court-ordered removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which led to the brain-damaged woman's death.
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