Participant Biographies

Michael John Gerson

Columnist, The Washington Post

Mr. Gerson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. 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. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, he was a senior policy advisor with The Heritage Foundation. 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.