Anita Dunn | |
---|---|
White House Communications Director Interim | |
Assumed office May 2009[1] | |
Appointed by | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Ellen Moran |
Succeeded by | Daniel Pfeiffer |
Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Robert Bauer |
Alma mater | University of Maryland [2] |
Occupation | Political media strategist Executive |
Anita Dunn is the White House Communications Director and will be stepping down by the end of November 2009.[3] She will be replaced by her deputy, Dan Pfeiffer, according to a senior White House official.[4] Previously, she was a Democratic political consultant with a Washington-based consulting firm, Squier Knapp Dunn Communications, and was a top adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.[5] [6]
Life and career
Dunn began her career in the Carter White House, first as an intern for White House Communications Director Gerald Rafshoon and then worked for chief of staff Hamilton Jordan. She worked on the campaign of Senator John Glenn (D-OH), and on Capitol Hill before joining the firm founded by Bob Squier and Bill Knapp in 1993. She has been the top adviser to Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), including serving as the chief strategist for his presidential campaign, Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). She was hired by then Senator Barack Obama in 2006 to direct communications and strategy for his political action committee, The Hopefund. This move signaled to many that Obama was planning to run for the presidency. While advising Hopefund and Obama in 2006, she was instrumental in the preparations for the launch of Obama for America, and brought many key staffers to the Obama campaign with whom she had worked in Bayh's and Daschle's offices.
Obama campaign
In April 2008, it was announced that Dunn, who had joined the Obama campaign in February, would be the director of communications, policy and research operations for Obama for America, where she held the title Senior Adviser and was one of the major decision makers of the Obama campaign. She was featured as one of four top advisers (along with David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Robert Gibbs) in a 60 Minutes interview held after then President-elect Obama's November 4, 2008 victory speech at Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois. She was described, in the 60 Minutes interview, as, "a relative newcomer who handled communications, research and policy."[7] During the presidential transition of 2008-09, Dunn trained White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.[citation needed]
White House Communications Director
A veteran political operative, Dunn, as interim White House Communications Director, took the lead in the Obama administration's criticism of the Fox News Channel[8] On Sunday, October 11, 2009, she appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources and was asked to clarify a statement she made to Time magazine regarding Fox News, "it's opinion journalism masquerading as news."[9] She responded by saying, "if you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN. The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."[10] She added, "And it's not ideological. Obviously, there are many commentators who have conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. But I think what is fair to say about FOX and certainly the way we view it is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party."[11]
On June 5, 2009, Dunn delivered a speech to students at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School of Potomac, Maryland, in which she stated that Mao Zedong was one of her "favorite political philosophers".[12] Four days after Dunn had appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources (i.e., October 15, 2009), Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck aired a clip on his show of that speech criticizing her for that and other statements.Cite error: The <ref>
tag has too many names (see the help page).[13] In response to the criticism, Dunn said "The use of the phrase 'favorite political philosophers' was intended as irony..."[14]. She also stated that "the Mao quote is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater."[15]
The Washington Post reported on November 10, 2009 that Dunn will step down by the end of November and be replaced by her deputy Dan Pfeiffer.[16]
Personal life
Dunn, who is 51,[17] is married to President Obama's personal attorney, Robert Bauer, a partner at Perkins Coie who is currently personal counsel to President Obama and the incoming White House Counsel.[18] Robert Bauer has also been the general counsel of Obama for America since January 2007.[1][19] In 2008, Newsweek named Dunn and Bauer the new "power couple" in Washington, D.C.[20]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Anita Dunn". Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ "Decision Makers - Anita Dunn". nationaljournal.com. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
- ^ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/dunn-leaving-white-house-pfeif.html?wprss=thefix Dunn leaving White House, Pfeiffer takes over
- ^ http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/dunn-leaves-white-house-communications-post/?hp Dunn Leaves White House Communications Post
- ^ "ANITA DUNN".
- ^ "Deep Secrecy In The Obama Campaign". CBS.
- ^ "Obama's Inner Circle Shares Inside Story". CBS.
- ^ "Newly Out In Front for White House: An Ol' Pro: Interim Media Strategist Leads Salvo Against Fox" profile by Jason Horowitz, Washington Post staff writer in The Washington Post Wednesday, October 14, 2009; 8:24 AM, accessed October 16, 2009
- ^ "Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press"
- ^ "White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News". Fox News. 2009-10-12.
- ^ "CNN RELIABLE SOURCES". http://transcripts.cnn.com. October 11, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ More complete quote from Dunn: The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers: Mao Zedong and Mother Theresa -- not often coupled with each other, but the two people I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point which is: you're going to make choices; you're going to challenge; you're going to say why not; you're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before. But here's the deal: These are your choices, they are no one else's. In 1947, when Mao Zedong was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side. And people said, "How can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this, against all of the odds against you?" And Mao Zedong said, you know, "You fight your war, and I'll fight mine." And think about that for a second. You don't have to accept the definition of how to do things and you don't have to follow other peoples choices and paths. Ok? It is about your choices and your path. You fight your own war, you lay out your own path, you figure out what's right for you. You don't let external definition define how good you are internally, you fight your war, you let them fight theirs. Everybody has their own path.
- ^ "Beck falsely claimed Anita Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong"
- ^ More complete quote from Dunn: The use of the phrase 'favorite political philosophers' was intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat -- at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing.
- ^ Suzanne Malveaux and Ed Hornick (2009-10-16). "Obama aide fires back at Beck over Mao remarks". CNN News.
- ^ Chris Cillizza (2009-11-10). "Dunn leaving White House, Pfeiffer takes over". Washington Post.
- ^ {{citation |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403850.html?hpid=moreheadlines
- ^ "After Months of Denials, Greg Craig Out As White House Counsel". abcnews.com. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "Bob Bauer". Washington Post Company. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ "The D.C. Powers - Under Obama, there will be a new elite in Washington. Some of its members:", Newsweek, Dec 20, 2008
External links
- Calmes, Jackie (December 20, 2008), "Power 2009: The New Lineup in Washington", Newsweek