Kevin Drum
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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. He received a degree in journalism in 1981 from California State University, Long Beach. He attended Cal Tech 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.
Currently, he writes daily on the prominent blog Political Animal, published by the Washington Monthly. 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.
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. Drum's blog is also credited with pioneering the trend of "Friday catblogging". [1]
In an interview with Norm 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]
As for the Iraq War 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]
In 1991 he wed Mariam Drum. They have no children.
[edit] References
- ^ As per New York Times, Technology Section, by Daniel Terdiman, Oct. 28, 2004.
- ^ Interview with Norman Geras.
- ^ Quote in Geras interview.
- ^ Drum on Iraq War in Foreign Affairs, July 11, 2006.
