Michael Gerson#Lines attributed to Gerson

{{Short description|American political speechwriter and columnist (1964–2022)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Michael Gerson

| image = Gerson.jpg

| caption = Gerson in 2014

| office = White House Director of Speechwriting

| president = George W. Bush

| term_start = January 20, 2001

| term_end = June 14, 2006

| predecessor = Terry Edmonds

| successor = William McGurn

| birth_name = Michael John Gerson

| birth_date = {{birth date|1964|5|15}}

| birth_place = Belmar, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|11|17|1964|5|15}}

| death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

| party = Republican

| spouse = Dawn Gerson

| children = 2

| education = {{ubl|Georgetown University|Wheaton College, Illinois (BA)}}

}}

Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with One Campaign,{{cite news|last=Pulliam Bailey|first=Sarah|title=Faithfully and Politically Present|url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=89975|access-date=July 4, 2011|newspaper=Christianity Today|date=November 10, 2010|archive-date=April 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407033751/http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=89975|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=ONE Welcomes the Washington Post's Michael Gerson|url=http://www.one.org/c/us/pressrelease/3438|access-date=July 4, 2011}} a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice,{{cite web|title=Michael J. Gerson, Visiting Fellow|url=http://www.cpjustice.org/content/michael-j-gerson|access-date=September 22, 2012|archive-date=March 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322094704/http://www.cpjustice.org/content/michael-j-gerson|url-status=dead}} and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.{{cite news |title=Mr. Compassionate Conservatism |first1=Naomi |last1=Schaefer Riley |author-link=Naomi Schaefer Riley |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=October 21, 2006 |url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009135 |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025233747/http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009135 |archive-date=October 25, 2006}} 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.{{cite book|title=Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War|isbn=0-307-34681-1|author-link=Michael Isikoff|last=Isikoff|first=Michael|author2=David Corn|author2-link=David Corn|publisher=Crown Publishers|location=New York|date=September 8, 2006}}

Gerson helped write the inaugural address for the second inauguration of George W. Bush, which called for neo-conservative intervention and nation-building around the world to effect the spread of democracy to third world countries.{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/the-believer-2|title=The Believer|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=May 29, 2018|language=en-US}}

In 2018, Gerson and commentator Amy Holmes co-hosted In Principle, a politically conservative-oriented television talk show that ran for eight episodes on PBS.{{Cite news|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/pbs-launching-new-conservative-political-talk-show/|title=PBS launching new conservative political talk show|date=February 28, 2018|work=The Seattle Times|access-date=May 29, 2018|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/show/in-principle/episodes/|title=In Principle: Season 1 Episodes|website=PBS.org}}

Early life and education

Gerson was born on May 15, 1964, in Belmar, New Jersey, and raised in an Evangelical Christian family[http://www.jeffreygoldberg.net/articles/tny/letter_from_washington_the_bel.php New Yorker Magazine: "Letter From Washington: The Believer – George W. Bush's loyal speechwriter" by Jeffrey Goldberg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119003746/http://www.jeffreygoldberg.net/articles/tny/letter_from_washington_the_bel.php |date=January 19, 2017 }} February 13, 2006 | "Gerson, whose parents were evangelical Christians (his last name comes from a Jewish grandfather)" in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Westminster Christian Academy for high school. His paternal grandfather was Jewish. He attended Georgetown University for a year and then transferred to Wheaton College in Illinois, graduating in 1986.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/Admissions-and-Aid/Undergrad/Learn-About-Wheaton/After-Wheaton|title=About Wheaton|website=Wheaton College|language=en|access-date=May 29, 2018}}

Career

File:President George W. Bush reviews his State of the Union speech.jpg, Brett Kavanaugh, Condoleezza Rice, and Gerson review President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech in 2004]]

Before joining the Bush administration, he was a senior policy advisor with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research institution.{{cite magazine|title=The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America|magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050203182958/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 3, 2005|date=February 7, 2005}} 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.{{cite interview |title = Q&A with Michael Gerson |last = Gerson |first = Michael |interviewer= Brian Lamb |work = Q&A |publisher = C-SPAN |url = http://www.c-span.org/video/?196000-1/qa-michael-gerson |date=January 7, 2007}} Gerson also worked at one point as a ghostwriter for Charles Colson.Scully, Matthew, "Present at the Creation," The Atlantic, September 2007, p. 76. In early 1999, Karl Rove recruited Gerson for the Bush campaign.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080724064224/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3628100.ece "Barack Obama is 'extraordinary talent', says Michael Gerson"]. The Sunday Times (UK), March 26, 2008.

Gerson was named by Time as one of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals In America." The February 7, 2005, issue listed Gerson as the ninth-most influential evangelical that year.

=Speechwriter=

Gerson joined the Bush campaign before 2000 as a speechwriter and went on to head the White House speechwriting team. "No one doubts that he did his job exceptionally well," wrote Ramesh Ponnuru in a 2007 article otherwise very critical of Gerson in National Review. According to Ponnuru, Bush's speechwriters had more prominence in the administration than their predecessors did under previous presidents because Bush's speeches did most of the work of defending the president's policies, since administration spokesmen and press conferences did not. On the other hand, he wrote, the speeches would announce new policies that were never implemented, making the speechwriting in some ways less influential than ever.Ponnuru, Ramesh, "Gerson's World: The president's chief speechwriter turns columnist," article in National Review, July 30, 2007.

On June 14, 2006, it was announced that Gerson was leaving the White House to pursue other writing and policy work.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|agency=Associated Press|date=June 14, 2006|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/washington/14wire-gerson.html|title=Longtime Bush Speechwriter Leaving White House}}{{cite news |last1=Burkeman |first1=Oliver |author1-link=Oliver Burkeman |title=Bush speechwriter resigns |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/15/usa.oliverburkeman |access-date=November 18, 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=June 15, 2006 |language=en}} He was replaced as Bush's chief speechwriter by The Wall Street Journal chief editor William McGurn.{{cn|date=November 2022}}

==Lines attributed to Gerson==

Gerson proposed the use of a "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" mixed-metaphor during a September 5, 2002, meeting of the White House Iraq Group, in an effort to sell the American public on the nuclear dangers posed by Saddam Hussein. According to Newsweek columnist Michael Isikoff,

The original plan had been to place it in an upcoming presidential speech, but WHIG members fancied it so much that when the Times reporters contacted the White House to talk about their upcoming piece [about aluminum tubes], one of them leaked Gerson's phrase – and the administration would soon make maximum use of it.Hubris, p. 35.

Gerson said one of his favorite speeches was given at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001, a few days after the September 11 attacks, which included the following passage: "Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn."{{cite news|first=Jim|last=Rutenberg|date=June 15, 2006|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/washington/15gerson.html|title=Adviser Who Shaped Bush's Speeches Is Leaving |work=The New York Times}}

Gerson was credited with coining such phrases as "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and "the armies of compassion".{{Cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/leading-bush-speechwriter-resigns|title=Leading Bush Speechwriter Resigns|date=June 15, 2006|work=Fox News|access-date=May 29, 2018|language=en-US}} His noteworthy phrases for Bush are said to include "Axis of Evil," a phrase adapted from "axis of hatred," itself suggested by fellow speechwriter David Frum but deemed too mild.{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2076552|title="Axis of Evil" Authorship Settled!|last=Noah|first=Timothy|date=January 9, 2003|work=Slate|access-date=May 29, 2018|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339}}

==Criticism of Gerson's speechwriting==

In an article by Matthew Scully, one of Bush's speechwriters, published in The Atlantic in September 2007, Gerson was criticized for seeking the limelight, taking credit for other people's work and creating a false image of himself. "No good deed went unreported, and many things that never happened were reported as fact. For all of our chief speechwriter's finer qualities, the firm adherence to factual narrative is not a strong point."{{Cite news |last=Scully |first=Matthew |date=September 2007 |title=Present at the Creation |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/09/present-at-the-creation/306134/ |work=The Atlantic |access-date=May 29, 2018 |language=en-US}} Of particular note is the invention of the phrase "axis of evil." Scully claims that the phrase "axis of hatred" was coined by David Frum and forwarded to colleagues by email. The word "hatred" was changed to "evil" by someone other than Gerson and was changed because "hatred" seemed the more melodramatic word at the time.

Scully also had this to say about Gerson:

My most vivid memory of Mike at Starbucks is one I have labored in vain to shake. We were working on a State of the Union address in John [McConnell]'s office when suddenly Mike was called away for an unspecified appointment, leaving us to 'keep going'. We learned only later, from a chance conversation with his secretary, where he had gone, and it was a piece of Washington self-promotion for the ages: At the precise moment when the State of the Union address was being drafted at the White House by John and me, Mike was off [at a Washington D.C. Starbucks store] pretending to craft the State of the Union in longhand for the benefit of a reporter.

=''Washington Post'' columnist=

After leaving the White House, Gerson wrote for Newsweek magazine for a time.{{cn|date=November 2022}} On May 16, 2007, Gerson began his tenure as a twice-weekly columnist for The Washington Post. His columns appeared on Wednesdays and Fridays.{{cite news|newspaper=Washington Post|date=May 16, 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501872.html|title=Missionaries in Northern Virginia|first=Michael|last=Gerson|access-date=May 12, 2010}}

Gerson, a neo-conservative, repeatedly criticized other conservatives in his column and conservatives returned the favor. One of Gerson's first columns was entitled "Letting Fear Rule", in which he compared skeptics of President Bush's immigration reform bill to nativist bigots of the 1880s.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402154.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Letting Fear Rule|first=Michael|last=Gerson|date=May 25, 2007|access-date=May 12, 2010}}

In October 2017, Gerson referred to President Donald Trump's "fundamental unfitness for high office" and asked whether he is "psychologically and morally equipped to be president? And could his unfitness cause permanent damage to the country?" He cited "the leaked cries for help coming from within the administration. They reveal a president raging against enemies, obsessed by slights, deeply uninformed and incurious, unable to focus, and subject to destructive whims."{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-its-time-to-panic/2017/10/12/5775d558-af76-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Republicans, it's time to panic|first=Michael|last=Gerson|date=October 12, 2017|access-date=October 13, 2010}}

In August 2019, Gerson wrote that it is a "scandal" that "white evangelical Protestants" are not in a state of "panic" about their own demographic decline in the United States.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/evangelical-leaders-are-tidying-the-kitchen-while-the-house-burns-down/2019/08/29/49d09a14-ca95-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html|title=Why white evangelicals should panic|last=Gerson|first=Michael|date=August 29, 2019|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=August 29, 2019}} One of the last articles he wrote was an essay on the continuing alliance between evangelical Christians and Donald Trump in 2022 and his belief that such an alliance was foolish and unchristian.{{cite news |title=Trump should fill Christians with rage. How come he doesn't? |last=Gerson |first=Michael |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 1, 2022 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/01/michael-gerson-evangelical-christian-maga-democracy/ }}

Personal life

Gerson's wife Dawn was born in South Korea. She was adopted by an American family when she was six years old and raised in the Midwestern United States. The couple met in high school, and have two sons. They resided in Northern Virginia.Gerson, Michael (April 27, 2010). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605232.html "International adoption: From a broken bond to an instant bond"]. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 27, 2018.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2018). [https://www.ushmm.org/confront-genocide/speakers-and-events/biography/michael-j-gerson "Speakers: Michael J. Gerson"]. Retrieved November 27, 2018.Chen, Edwin (September 22, 2001). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-22-mn-48550-story.html "Helping Bush Sound Presidential"]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 27, 2018.

=Health and death=

Gerson suffered from major depressive disorder, and was hospitalized at least once for it.{{YouTube|id=RePCYh6LVZo|title=Political columnist Michael Gerson on coping with 'insidious' depression}} published February 19, 2019, PBS NewsHour.{{cite web |title=Read Michael Gerson's Sermon Sharing His Struggle with Depression |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/read-michael-gersons-sermon-sharing-his-struggle-with-depression |website=PBS |access-date=December 26, 2021 |date=February 19, 2019}}

In 2013, Gerson was diagnosed with kidney cancer.{{cite news |last1=Gerson |first1=Michael |title=Michael Gerson: After cancer diagnosis, seeing mortality in the near distance |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-after-cancer-diagnosis-seeing-mortality-in-the-near-distance/2013/12/05/36a79f16-5dd9-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 26, 2021 |date=December 5, 2013}}{{cite news |last1=Gerson |first1=Michael |title=Michael Gerson: This Christmas, hope may feel elusive. But despair is not the answer. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/23/christmas-holiday-hope-despair-nativity-faith/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 26, 2021 |date=December 23, 2021}} He also had Parkinson's disease.{{cite news |last1=Wehner |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Wehner |title=My Friend, Mike Gerson |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/michael-gerson-speechwriter-george-bush-dies-cancer/672172/ |access-date=December 7, 2022 |work=The Atlantic |date=November 18, 2022}} He died from kidney cancer at a Washington, D.C. hospital, on November 17, 2022, at age 58.{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Brian |title=Michael Gerson, Post columnist and Bush speechwriter on 9/11, dies at 58 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/11/17/michael-gerson-speechwriter-post-dies/ |newspaper=The Washington Post|url-access = limited|date = November 17, 2022|access-date = November 17, 2022}}{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/us/politics/michael-j-gerson-dead.html|title = Michael J. Gerson, Presidential Speechwriter and Columnist, Dies at 58|newspaper = The New York Times|last = Risen|first = Clay|date = November 17, 2022|access-date = November 17, 2022|url-access = limited}}

Published works

{{Cite book |last=Gerson |first=Michael |title=Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't)|publisher=HarperOne|year=2007|isbn=978-0-06-134950-8|url=https://archive.org/details/heroicconservati00gers}} {{Cite news |last=Cannon |first=Carl M. |date=December 22, 2007 |title=The GOP After Bush |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2007/12/23/the-gop-after-bush/8f600ee0-9004-476b-b3a7-5ec975320b68/ |work=The Washington Post}}
{{Cite book |last1=Gerson |first1=Michael |author-mask1=2 |author2=Peter Wehner |author2-link=Peter Wehner |title=City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era|publisher=Moody|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8024-5857-5|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780802458575}}

References

External links

{{Sister project links|n=no|q=no|b=no|v=no|s=no|wikt=no|d=Q6830587}}

[http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060213fa_fact1 A profile of Gerson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702072354/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060213fa_fact1 |date=July 2, 2014 }} in The New Yorker
[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/november/5.37.html Faithfully and Politically Present] Christianity Today
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/biographies/michael-gerson.html The Washington Post, "Biography: Michael Gerson"]
[http://blog.hulds.com/2011/10/obama-might-be-stuck-with-a-be.html The News Tribune, "Obama might be stuck with a beast that he can't tame"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303213431/http://blog.hulds.com/2011/10/obama-might-be-stuck-with-a-be.html |date=March 3, 2016 }}
[https://www.pbs.org/show/in-principle/ In Principle] at PBS
{{C-SPAN|1022857}}