Kevin Drum (born October 19, 1958) is an American political blogger and columnist. He was born in Long Beach, California and now lives in Irvine, California. In 1991 he wed the newly named Marian Drum.
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Biography
Education
He received a degree in journalism in 1981 from California State University, Long Beach. He attended Caltech for two years prior to transferring to CSULB. While at CSULB he served as city editor of the University's independent student run Daily 49er.
Career background
Currently, he writes daily on the prominent blog Political Animal, published by the Washington Monthly, and has done so since March 2004. He also writes occasional op-eds in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. He rose to prominence through the popularity of his (now-defunct) independent liberal blog CalPundit (2003-2004). Prior to writing full time about politics he worked as a technical writer, then moved into high-tech marketing. He was with Kofax Image Products for nine years as VP of Marketing and general manager of the software division. He also has worked as a consultant. Stylistically, his blog is known for offering original statistical or graphical analysis (unusual for the genre), with special attention to oil supply (especially peak oil theory) and related issues. While blogging at CalPundit he is credited with pioneering the trend of "Friday catblogging".[1] In an interview with Norman Geras he stated that his intellectual heroes were FDR, Isaac Newton, John Maynard Keynes, Edward R. Murrow and Charles Darwin. He also considers Benjamin Franklin his all-time favorite political hero.[2]
The Iraq war
As for the 2003 Iraq War, probably the number one topic of political bloggers, he was originally in favor of the American led war but right before the U.S. launched the attack he came out against it. He said, "Before the war started I switched to opposition on practical grounds (i.e., that George Bush's approach was incapable of accomplishing the goals it was meant to accomplish). Since then, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that, in fact, I should have opposed it all along on philosophical grounds: namely that it was a fundamentally flawed concept and had no chance of working even if it had been competently executed."[3][4]
Footnotes
- ^ Terdiman, Daniel. New York Times, Technology Section, Oct. 28, 2004.
- ^ Geras, Norman. Interview with Kevin Drum, August 19, 2005.
- ^ Geras, Norman. Ibid.
- ^ Foreign Affairs, article, July 11, 2006.
External links
- Washington Monthly Political Animal.
- CalPundit archives.
- Biographical information.
- The Potomac Journal Interview, by Michael Neff, December 2006.
