American Politics

The new online exhibition at The American Museum of the Moving Image is called "The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004". Schwartz is the chief curator of film at the museum. He'll talk about the history of political commercials from their inception in 1952 to the present.

Jackson is the director of Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project that aims to reduce deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Jackson will talk about present-day political ads. Jackson reported on Washington and national politics for The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. He is the author of Honest Graft: Big Money and the American Political Process.

The Fresh Air critic has written a new book, Sore Winners (And The Rest of Us) in George Bush's America. Powers is critic-at-large for Fresh Air, and deputy editor for L.A. Weekly, where he writes a media/culture column called On. He's also an international correspondent for Gourmet magazine.

The son of the late President Ronald Reagan has been invited to speak at the Democratic convention next week. He and his mother have become outspoken proponents of stem cell research. Reagan has edited the book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President.

His new book is America the Vulnerable: How our Government is Failing to Protect us From Terrorism. Flynn is a senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, and served in the White House Military Office during the senior Bush administration. He also was director for global issues on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.

Moore is the president of the Club for Growth and contributing editor for National Review. The Club for Growth has a political action committee dedicated to elected conservative politicians who carry on the Reagan vision of "limited government and lowered taxes." Moore was the Cato Institute's director of fiscal policy studies, and is now a Cato senior fellow.

His new book is Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004. He's a writer and editor for The New Yorker magazine and frequently contributes to its "Talk of the Town" section. Hertzberg was on the staff of the New Republic magazine for much of the 1980s. Hertzberg also spent time in the White House from 1979 to 1981 as Jimmy Carter's speechwriter. In the introduction to this book, The New Yorker's David Remnick says "as a writer he has tone control the way Billie Holliday had tone control."

Trippi was the campaign manager for Howard Dean during his bid to be the democratic presidential nominee. Using the Internet, Trippi turned a little-known candidate into a frontrunner. His new book is The Revolution Will Not be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Trippi worked on his first presidential campaign for Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1980. He also worked with the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Richard Gephardt.

He's just published his autobiography, My Life. Clinton talks about what he knew about Osama bin Laden during his administration and how he tried to strike a balance between informing and terrifying Americans. Clinton currently lives in Chappaqua, New York and works in Harlem.

Frank is the founding editor of the zine The Baffler, a cultural-criticism journal. He also writes frequently for Harper's, and The Nation. His new book is What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. He is also the author of One Market Under God, and The Conquest of Cool.