Political commentator, satirist, author and columnist Arianna Huffington will speak on “Election 2004: Handicapping the Presidential Election” at 11 a.m. Sept. 15 in Graham Chapel for the Assembly Series.
She is replacing Seymour Hersh, who canceled due to a schedule conflict.
Huffington is the author of 10 books, most recently Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America, published in 2004, and Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America, published in 2003 and a New York Times best seller.
She also writes a nationally syndicated column and has been a frequent guest on politically oriented television programs such as Politically Incorrect, Real Time With Bill Maher, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, Nightline, Crossfire, Hardball and Firing Line.
Born in Greece to parents who participated in the resistance to the Nazi occupation of their country, Huffington was reared in the midst of political activism. She moved to England at 16 and attended Cambridge University, earning a master’s degree in economics. She proved to be a top debater early in life when she was named president of the university’s debating society.
After moving to America, the one-time Republican became an independent. She ran for governor of California during the 2003 recall election.
In 2000, she helped organize the “Shadow Conventions” to spotlight key issues that neither party was willing to address, such as financial corruption and the ever-widening gulf between the “two Americas.”
In 2002, she co-founded The Detroit Project, a grass-roots campaign that attempts to influence a change in emphasis on building gas-inefficient vehicles and to call attention to the country’s dependence on foreign oil. In addition, she created the Bermuda Project to expose corporate America’s growing use of offshore tax shelters, and she has campaigned to reform our country’s failing public education system.
Huffington’s published work includes subjects well outside the boundaries of politics. The Female Woman, her first book printed in 1974, explored the changing roles of women. Biographies of Maria Callas and Pablo Picasso were international best sellers. Other books include The Gods of Greece and The Fourth Instinct.
Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public, although some may have limited public seating.
For more information, go online to assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call 935-5285.