Michael Gerson | |
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Born |
Michael John Gerson May 15, 1964 |
Occupation | Presidential speechwriter, political columnist |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Dawn Gerson |
Michael John Gerson (born May 15, 1964) is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group.
He helped write George W. Bush's controversial second inaugural address that called for neo-conservative intervention and nation building around the world to effect the spread of democracy to third world countries.
Gerson was raised in an Evangelical Christian family in St. Louis, Missouri. His paternal grandfather was Jewish. He attended Georgetown University for a year and then transferred to Wheaton College in Illinois, graduating in 1986.
He resides with his wife and their two children in Alexandria, Virginia.
Before joining the Bush Administration, he was a senior policy advisor with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research institution. He also worked at various times as an aide to Indiana Senator Dan Coats and a speechwriter for the Presidential campaign of Bob Dole before briefly leaving the political world to cover it as a journalist for U.S. News & World Report. Gerson also worked at one point as a ghostwriter for Charles Colson.