Probably the most prominent American political consultant, Dick Morris is almost universally credited with piloting Bill Clinton to a stunning comeback re-election victory in 1996 after the president lost Congress to the Republicans two years before. Called "the most influential private citizen in America" by Time Magazine, Morris helped steer Clinton to the center and away from the liberal policies he had pursued in his first two years in office. Morris is also credited with advising Clinton to sign the welfare reform bill of 1996 and getting him to back a balanced budget, both key centrist positions.
Morris began his relationship with Clinton in 1977 when he handled the Arkansas Attorney General's successful campaign to become the youngest Governor in the nation. Morris did not work on Clinton's defeat for re-election in 1980 but did oversee his comeback victory in 1982 as well as his Arkansas re-election victories in 1984, 1986 and 1990.
In addition to Clinton, Morris has handled the winning campaigns for more than 30 senators or governors including Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and former Governors Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Pete Wilson of California.
In recent years, Morris has turned to foreign campaigns and served as chief strategist for Mexico's reformer Vicente Fox in his upset victory in July, 2000 over the PRI after the party had ruled the nation for 71 years. He also was the chief strategist for the winning campaign of Argentina's new president Fernando de la Rua in November, 1999. He also worked for Jorge Battle in his victory for president of Uruguay that same year.
In the United States, Morris has become a familiar figure as a commentator for the Fox News Channel. He makes over four hundred appearances each year and is well known for hard-hitting, nonpartisan, objective commentary about the U.S. political scene. He writes a weekly column for the New York Post and the Hill Magazine in the U.S. and the National Post in Canada.
In November of 1999, Morris founded a Web site in the U.S. called Vote.com where people may log on to vote on the major issues of the day. Their opinions are then e-mailed to their senator and congress-people and to other significant decision makers. In the eleven months of the site's operation, over one million voters have registered their e-mail addresses and zip codes with Vote.com and have cast a total of more than 15 million votes. Vote.com is now rated by Media Metrics and PC Data as one of the most trafficked Web sites in the world.
As part of his work with Vote.com, Dick, along with his wife/lawyer Eileen McGann founded Legalvote.com, an online jury focus group service. They have conducted online focus groups in over 100 cases and their clients include two of the top insurance companies in the U.S. as well as many of the major plaintiff lawyers in the nation.
Dick has written four books. His 1997 best selling memoir of the Clinton Administration was entitled "Behind the Oval Office, Winning the Presidency in the Nineties." In 1999, he wrote a guide to modern politics called "The New Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the 21st Century." In 2000, he wrote "Vote.com - A guide to the Internet based politics of the future." His first book, "Bum Rap on American Cities - The Real Causes of Urban Decay" was published in 1977.
His new book, "Power Plays," is available at NewsMax.com. It sketches the careers of twenty of history's leading figures and the strategies they used to gain political power. It compares the successful and unsuccessful strategies of men like Churchill, Clinton, Reagan, Lincoln, de Gaulle, Truman, FDR, Tony Blair and many others.
Mr. Morris lives with his wife of 23 years, Eileen McGann, in Connecticut and in New York City. |
