Dick Morris (born November 28, 1948) is an American
politicalPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
author and commentator who previously worked as a
pollsterA pollster is a professional whose primary job is conducting private pre-election polls and advising candidates on election strategy. A pollster may inspect ballots...
,
political campaign consultantPolitical campaign staff are the people who formulate and implement the strategy needed to win an election. Many people have made careers out of working full-time for campaigns and groups that support them, but in other campaigns much of the staff might be unpaid volunteers...
, and general political consultant.
Morris became an adviser to the
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
administration after Clinton was elected president in 1992. Morris encouraged Clinton to pursue
third wayThe Third Way is a term that has been used to describe a political position which attempts to transcend left-wing and right-wing politics by advocating a mix of some left-wing and right-wing policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed as representing a centrist compromise between capitalism...
policies of
triangulationTriangulation is the name given to the act of a political candidate presenting his or her ideology as being "above" and "between" the "left" and "right" sides of a traditional democratic "political spectrum". It involves adopting for oneself some of the ideas of one's political opponent...
that merged traditional Republican and Democratic proposals, rhetoric, and issues to achieve maximum political gain and popularity. He worked as a Republican strategist before joining the Clinton administration, where he helped Clinton recover from the
1994 midterm electionsThe Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the Republican Party of the United States dubbed their success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...
by convincing the President to adopt Republican policies.
The president consulted Morris in secret beginning in 1994. Clinton's communications director
George StephanopoulosGeorge Robert Stephanopoulos is an American broadcaster and former political adviser. He is currently ABC News's Chief Washington Correspondent and the host of ABC's Sunday morning news show This Week with George Stephanopoulos....
has said that "Over the course of the first nine months of 1995, no single person had more power over the president".
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/interviews/stephanopoulos4.html Morris went on to become
campaign managerIn representative democracies, electoral campaigns larger than a few individuals generally include a campaign manager, either paid or volunteer, whose role is to coordinate the campaign's operations such as fundraising, advertising , polling , getting out the vote , and other activities...
of
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
's successful 1996 bid for re-election to the office of
PresidentPresident is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
. His tenure on that
campaignA political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
was cut short two months before the election, when it was revealed that he had allowed a prostitute to listen in on conversations with the President. Morris then turned his focus to media commentary. He now writes a weekly column for the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
which is carried nationwide, contributes columns and blogs to both the print and online versions of
The HillThe Hill is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is written for and about the U.S. Congress.Since 2003, The Hills editor in chief has been Hugo Gurdon, previously a reporter and editor at The Daily Telegraph and the National Post...
, and appears regularly on the
Fox News ChannelThe Fox News Channel , commonly referred to as Fox or Fox News, is a major American cable news and satellite channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As of April 2009, it is available to 102 million households in the U.S...
for political commentary. He is also President of Vote.com, a website which conducts polls on "important public issues and other topics" and then emails results to "important decision makers" in government.
More recently, Morris has emerged as a harsh critic of the Clintons and has written several books that criticize them, including
Rewriting History, a rebuttal to Senator Hillary Clinton's
Living HistoryLiving History is the autobiography of Secretary of State, former United States Senator from New York, and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, published in 2003....
. Morris said that he would leave the United States if Hillary Clinton were elected president in 2008.
Currently, Morris is strategist for Republican
Christy MihosChristy P. Mihos is an American politician and businessman from the U.S. commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was an Independent candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 and is running again as a Republican in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial election...
's campaign in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial race.
Early life
Morris attended
Stuyvesant High SchoolStuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. It is one of the most competitive public high schools in the United States, sending more students to some of the nation's most prestigious universities than...
in New York City, where he was active on the debate team. He managed
Jerrold NadlerJerrold Lewis "Jerry" Nadler, is an American politician from New York City. A liberal Democrat, Nadler represents New York's 8th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City....
's campaign for class president; Nadler has since gone on to represent New York in the
House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. Morris was also involved in the first campaign of Richard Gottfried for New York State Assembly in 1970. Morris graduated from Stuyvesant in 1964, then attended
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
where he earned a
Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
degreeA degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.- History :...
, graduating in 1967.
Morris and the Clintons
Morris first worked with Bill and Hillary Clinton during Bill Clinton's successful 1978 bid for
Governor of ArkansasThe Governor of the State of Arkansas is the chief executive of the state and commander-in-chief of its military forces.The current governor is Mike Beebe, who took office on January 9 2007.-Qualifications:...
. Morris is credited by many with engineering Clinton's re-election to the Arkansas governorship after a humiliating defeat at the end of Clinton's first term. As a result, Clinton turned to Morris after the mid-term elections of 1994, when Republicans gained control of the U.S. House and Senate and Clinton's own chance for a second presidential term seemed remote. From the early months of 1995 to August 1996, Morris was a principal architect of the Clinton-Gore re-election strategy.
Morris did not have a role in Clinton's successful 1992 Presidential campaign, which instead was headed by
David WilhelmDavid Wilhelm is an American political leader and businessman. Wilhelm is best known for managing campaigns for President Bill Clinton, Senator Paul Simon, Senator Joe Biden and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley....
,
James CarvilleJames Carville is an American political consultant, commentator, actor, attorney, media personality, and prominent liberal pundit. Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton...
,
George StephanopoulosGeorge Robert Stephanopoulos is an American broadcaster and former political adviser. He is currently ABC News's Chief Washington Correspondent and the host of ABC's Sunday morning news show This Week with George Stephanopoulos....
, and
Paul BegalaPaul Begala is a Democratic political consultant, a political commentator, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton. He gained national prominence as half of the political consulting team Carville and Begala. Until June 2005, Begala was a co-host of CNN's political debate program, Crossfire...
. After the 1994 mid-term election where Republicans took control of both houses of the
United States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
and gained considerable power in the states, Clinton once again sought Morris' help to prepare for the 1996 Presidential election. It was Morris who proposed a strategy that is now referred to as "
triangulationTriangulation is the name given to the act of a political candidate presenting his or her ideology as being "above" and "between" the "left" and "right" sides of a traditional democratic "political spectrum". It involves adopting for oneself some of the ideas of one's political opponent...
," where Clinton would appeal to a diverse group of voters by distancing himself from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Fallout
On August 29, 1996, Morris resigned from the Clinton campaign after reports surfaced that he had been involved with a prostitute. A New York
tabloidA tabloid is an industry term for a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge ; or to a newspaper that tends to sensationalize and emphasize or exaggerate or...
newspaper, the
StarStar is a magazine specializing in celebrity gossip and scandals.-History:Star was founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1974 as competition to the tabloid National Enquirer with its headquarters in New York City. In the late 1980s it moved its offices to Tarrytown, NY and in 1990 Murdoch sold the magazine...
, had obtained and published a set of photographs of Morris and the woman on a
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, hotel balcony. News of the impending publication broke during the third day of the 1996 Democratic Convention. The
Electronic Telegraph reported unverified claims that in order to impress the woman, S. Rowlands, Morris invited her to listen in on his conversations with President Clinton. ref>
Dick Morris, High on the Critical List, Washington Post
Morris resigned on the same day that Bill Clinton spoke and accepted the nomination at the
Democratic National ConventionThe 1996 Democratic National Convention of the was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois from August 26 to August 29, 1996. Incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton was renominated for President of United States.-Site selection:...
. In his resignation statement, he said that "while I served I sought to avoid the limelight because I did not want to become the message. Now, I resign so I will not become the issue." In his response, President Clinton praised Morris as a "friend", and thanked him for his years of service. Privately various aides to Clinton were furious that in his resignation statement Morris credited himself with helping the President "come back from being buried in a landslide" and that Morris ended by comparing himself to Robert Kennedy.
Morris was featured on two consecutive covers of
Time magazine. The September 2, 1996 issue, which was released before the prostitute story broke, featured Morris as "The Man Who Has Clinton's Ear." The following week, the cover featured Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, and the headline read "The Morris Mess: After the Fall."
Later work
In his 1997 book
Behind the Oval Office, Morris wrote that, following an argument in the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, he strode toward the exit and was tackled by Clinton. In 2003, Morris further stated that Clinton cocked his arm back to throw a punch, but Hillary Clinton pulled her husband off Morris. In both versions of the story, she consoled Morris and apologized to him, stating that Bill only behaved such with those he cared for most. According to Morris, she did this to keep him quiet about the incident. He says the incident was the reason for denying Bill Clinton's request to work on the 1992 campaign; whether this actually happened and Clinton's side of the story is not known.
Morris has become a vocal and regular critic of the Clintons since his departure, in particular Hillary Rodham Clinton and her bid for the presidency. Morris has written extensively about the Clintons (see below) and also contributed to Hillary: The Movie, a documentary about Rodham Clinton when she was still a 2008 Presidential candidate. Later, after former President Bill Clinton's comments about the similarities between the Obama win and the win of Presidential candidate Rev.
Jesse JacksonJesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to form...
in 1988, Morris put out an article on his blog that asserted that this was Clinton's way of injecting race into the political campaign.
On female presidential candidates
On November 5, 2007, when asked about Hillary Clinton's allegation of experiencing sexism during the Democratic Presidential primary debates in the months prior to the Iowa caucuses, Morris commented that "When a woman wants to be president, she shouldn't complain based on gender. You can't say I'm going to take my toys and go home because the big boys are picking on me. What happens when the boys in the Middle East, or the boys who run Russia, or the boys that run China, start picking on you? Are we going to have a president of the United States saying the boys are picking on me? This is what Hillary always does, whenever she gets under fire, she retreats behind the apron strings."
On September 2, 2008, during the
Republican National ConventionThe Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
, Morris said, in reference to personal attacks on 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee
Sarah PalinSarah Louise Palin is an American politician who served as Governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009 and was the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2008....
and her children, that "A man would never have had to go through this." Morris elaborated that the attacks on her ability as a mother of five to balance family life and the duties of the Vice Presidential office reflected a "deep
sexismSexism, a term coined in the mid-20th century, is the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to, less competent, or less valuable than the other. It can also refer to hatred of, or prejudice towards, either sex as a whole , or the application of stereotypes of masculinity in relation...
that runs through our society."
These statements were juxtaposed by
Jon StewartJonathan "Jon" Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
in a video on
The Daily ShowThe Daily Show, known in its current incarnation as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn...
which was later widely circulated online.
Political consulting
As of August, 2009, Morris lends his name and assistance to the League of American Voters, a group targeting seniors to try to defeat the Obama health care reform. He has been described as America's most ruthless political consultant in the BBC documentary Century of the Self Episode 4, which chronicled how he brought lifestyle marketing to politics for the first time. Morris told Clinton the way to winning was to throw out all ideology and treat politics as a consumer business—to target the swing voters and identify their personal desires and whims and then promise to fulfill them. (Century of the Self Part 4 ~36:00). Targeting the worries of the swing voters became all that mattered and issues such as the
V-ChipV-chip is a generic term used for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all...
were the issues that became relevant. American suburbanite voters were running America's domestic policy and some of its foreign policy in the 1990s as the Clinton administration developed their political stance and strategies based on popular opinion polls, for example, the bombing of Bosnia. (Century of the Self Part 4 ~41:00).
Morris has also consulted for candidates in other countries of the western hemisphere, including the campaigns of
Fernando de la RuaFernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10 1999 to December 21 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
for President of
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
(1999), Jorge Batlle for President of
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
(1999),
Vicente FoxVicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican politician who served as President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected President of Mexico in the...
for President of Mexico (2000), and
Raphael TrotmanRaphael Trotman, born 1966, is a lawyer and a politician in Guyana.A former executive member of the People's National Congress Reform, Trotman co-founded the Alliance For Change in 2005 along with Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder...
for President of
GuyanaGuyana officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean.Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans,Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won,...
(2006).
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000015/001577.htm
Morris and Eileen McGann are behind
www.vote.com, a site intended to register non-scientific political public opinion on various issues.
Dick Morris is currently working as a strategist for
Christy MihosChristy P. Mihos is an American politician and businessman from the U.S. commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was an Independent candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 and is running again as a Republican in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial election...
, a Republican candidate for
governor of MassachusettsThe Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
running to unseat incumbent
Deval PatrickDeval Laurdine Patrick is the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the first African American to hold that office...
. Morris will "oversee strategy, polling, and advertising for Mihos."
Guest commentator and political prognosticator
Since leaving the Clintons' employ in 1996, Morris has said he has become profoundly "disillusioned" with the actions of the Clintons in the late 1990s. He has now formed a career as a political commentator and critic of the Clintons (particularly towards Hillary), appearing on Fox News programs such as
Hannity & ColmesHannity & Colmes was an American television show on Fox News Channel, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 6, 1996, and the final episode aired on January 9, 2009...
,
HannityHannity is a television show on the Fox News network, a replacement to the long-running show Hannity & Colmes. It is hosted by conservative political pundit Sean Hannity....
, and the
O'Reilly Factor, and on various local and nationally syndicated radio
talk showsTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
. Morris is also a regular columnist and Pundits Blogger for
The HillThe Hill is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is written for and about the U.S. Congress.Since 2003, The Hills editor in chief has been Hugo Gurdon, previously a reporter and editor at The Daily Telegraph and the National Post...
, a nonpartisan daily newspaper based in Washington, D.C., and for NewsMax.com, a conservative online news website.
Morris regularly makes predictions about candidates' chances of winning elections during these appearances. In a 2005 book on the upcoming 2008 Presidential campaign, Morris stated that it is most likely that Hillary Clinton would face
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
for the presidency. Morris critics reacted by mocking his mistaken predictions of past races. Regarding the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, he initially stated that Howard Dean's candidacy could be written off right away. While ultimately vindicated, he had discussed the likelihood of Dean defeating John Kerry after early strong showings by the former Vermont governor. Kerry defeated Dean and all his other rivals and won the nomination. Additionally, Morris predicted that Hillary Clinton would face a "nightmare" in her 2006 Senate race against moderate Republican candidate
Jeanine PirroJeanine Ferris Pirro is an American lawyer, prosecutor, former Judge, and politician from the state of New York. A Republican from Westchester County, Pirro served as a county judge before serving as the elected District Attorney of Westchester County for twelve years...
, whose campaign subsequently collapsed within a matter of two months after repeated crushing defeats in the opinion polls. He even went so far as to suggest that Clinton would "give up" and drop out to focus on her 2008 campaign.
Morris further wrote that Hurricane Katrina would mark Bush's second term the same way 9/11 marked his first term, saying: "Katrina has the capacity to shape the second Bush term in the same way September 11 shaped his first term—not only in rebuilding New Orleans but in taking preventative steps around the nation to bolster our defenses against natural and man-made disasters and terror strikes. Responding to disasters is a source of presidential strength and popularity, and Bush is about to show how it is done."
Appearing on Fox News'
Hannity and Colmes on January 29, 2008, Morris said that those voting for
John EdwardsJohnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician who served one term as U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth...
were "at the moment... those that can't decide which they don’t like more—a black or a woman getting elected". Host
Alan ColmesAlan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, political commentator and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally-syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk on Sirius and XM...
asked if he was "saying that Edwards voters are bigots?" Morris elaborated that exit polls showed some Edwards voters were unsure if a woman or a Black American, in reference to then Democratic Primary front runners Hillary Clinton and
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
, could get elected to the Presidency for the first time in '08.
After Obama won the 2008 election, Morris was critical of him. In early 2009, Morris said: "Those crazies in
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
who say, 'We're going to kill
ATFThe Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a specialized federal law enforcement agency and regulatory organization within the United States Department of Justice...
agents because the
U.N.The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
’s going to take over'? Well, they’re beginning to have a case." In April 2009, Morris keynoted an animated debate at the
Yale Political UnionThe Yale Political Union , a debate society now the largest student organization at Yale University, was founded in 1934 by Professor Alfred Whitney Griswold , to enliven the university's political culture of the time. It was modelled on the Cambridge University Union Society and Oxford Union...
on the topic
"Resolved: Save Capitalism from President Obama". The motion narrowly failed.
Foreign political consultant
Morris worked with the
United Kingdom Independence PartyThe United Kingdom Independence Party is a conservative, Eurosceptic political party. Its principal aim is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. UKIP currently holds thirteen seats in the European Parliament and two in the House of Lords...
in their campaign before the
2004 European Parliament electionElections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom...
. The party, which advocates withdrawal from the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
, won 12 of
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
's 78 seats.
In 2004 and 2005, he and his wife had acted as campaign consultants to the successful
YushchenkoViktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is the third and current President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005....
Presidential campaign in
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
. Morris reports that he insisted on the use of
exit pollAn election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...
s as a means of potentially exposing
ballotA ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
tampering. He argues this played a significant role in forcing the government of then President
Leonid KuchmaLeonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from July 19, 1994, to January 23, 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival then-President Leonid Kravchuk...
to acquiesce to a new poll when the official results of the first varied materially from the exit surveys. Interestingly, faced with a similar (though smaller) divergence between exit polling and election returns, he took the opposite stance in a 2004 article in
The Hill when he suspected "foul play" on the part of the exit pollsters in the U.S. Presidential race.
Mexico 2004; Morris outlined the strategy of the negative campaign that would be used against the
PRDPRD may stand for:*Parti radical-démocratique, a political party in Switzerland*Partido de la Revolución Democrática, a political party in Mexico*Partido Revolucionario Democrático, a political party in Panama...
and AMLO: “The PRD would be a disaster for Mexico, the country would go in the same direction as Chávez and Castro.” That is to say, López Obrador would be “a danger to Mexico,” as Rob Allyn said in an article published on April 3, 2006, published in the New York Post.
In a November 13, 2007 press conference in
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters"...
,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
, Morris announced that he would be offering his consultancy services
pro bonoPro bono publico is a phrase derived from Latin meaning "for the public good". The term is generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and...
for the campaign to elect
Raila OdingaRaila Amollo Odinga is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as the Prime Minister of Kenya in a coalition government. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Langata since 1992, was Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and was Minister of Roads, Public Works and Housing from 2003 to 2005...
as President of Kenya in the
2007 Presidential electionA presidential election was held as part of the Kenyan general election on December 27, 2007; parliamentary elections were held on the same date. Incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner and sworn in on December 30, despite opposition leader Raila Odinga's claims of victory...
running on the
Orange Democratic MovementOrange Democratic Movement refers to a political party in Kenya, which is the successor of a former grassroots people's movement which was formed in the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum. The erstwhile single party which separated in August 2007 into two...
ticket.
With four weeks to the National Elections, an editorial in one of the leading dailies called into question the legalities of Dick Morris' consulting work from the perspective of his presence in, and lack of legal ability to work in Kenya "pro bono" or "through the back door".
The outcome of the December 27, 2007 elections in Kenya is still disputed due to allegations of electoral fraud and rigging by the incumbent president,
Mwai KibakiMwai Kibaki is a Kenyan politician and the third President of Kenya.Kibaki was previously Vice President . He also held several other cabinet positions, including a widely acclaimed stint as Minister for Finance , Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Health .He then served as an opposition...
, the
Party of National UnityParty of National Unity was founded as a political coalition of parties in Kenya. On September 16 2007, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced the new formation and said that he would run as its presidential candidate in the December 2007 Kenyan elections but has since become a political party in...
and erroneous reporting by the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). Massive protests and tribal tensions have since erupted between the president's
KikuyuThe Kikuyu are Kenya's most populous ethnic group. 'Kikuyu' is the Swahilized form of the proper name and pronunciation of Gĩkũyũ although they refer to themselves as the Agĩkũyũ people....
tribe and the majority of other tribes not favorably aligned to the outcome. Major mediations have commenced between concerned parties, including possible formation of a coalition and/or interim government until reelections are performed.
Morris' DVD
Morris has appeared in the documentary film
FahrenHYPE 9/11FahrenHYPE 9/11 is a 2004 film that examines and challenges Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, from a Republican point of view. The movie is narrated by Ron Silver...
, a response to
Michael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story four of the top six highest-grossing documentaries of all time...
's
2004The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
film,
Fahrenheit 9/11Fahrenheit 9/11 is an award-winning and controversial 2004 documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terrorism, and its coverage in the news media...
. He also wrote the
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
.
Tax troubles
Morris had been labeled as one of the biggest tax delinquents in his home state of Connecticut, owing an estimated $280,000 in unpaid taxes and a total of $452,367 in unpaid taxes and fees. In 2003 the IRS filed a $1.5 million tax lien against him. Morris said that he has reached an agreement with Connecticut and his name will be removed from the next delinquency list. Morris says that he is committed to paying his taxes: "Following a difficult period in my life, I fell into arrears. But since then, I have paid almost $3 million in state and federal taxes."
Books
Morris has written several books. He authored
Condi vs. Hillary (subtitled
The next great presidential race) (ISBN 0-06-083913-9) in which he argues that only
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
could block Hillary Clinton's anticipated 2008 bid for the White House. He co-authored this book with his wife, Eileen McGann.
Previously he wrote a pair of books criticizing the Clintons, again co-authored by his wife, Eileen McGann.
Rewriting History (ISBN 0-06-073668-2) was published in May 2004 as a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's book,
Living HistoryLiving History is the autobiography of Secretary of State, former United States Senator from New York, and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, published in 2003....
(ISBN 0-7432-2224-5). In it, he argues that Hillary Clinton has presented a false "nice" persona in the book. Morris instead remembers her as manipulative, cold, and single-minded in her pursuit of power. Similarly, Morris and McGann wrote
Because He Could (ISBN 0-06-078415-6) in response to Bill Clinton's memoir
My Life (ISBN 0-375-41457-6).
Morris has also written
Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties (ISBN 1-58063-053-7), a retrospective of his work with the Clintons that was published soon after his resignation from the campaign in 1996. Other books include
Power Plays: Win or Lose—How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game (ISBN 0-06-000444-4),
The New Prince (ISBN 1580631479 ),
Vote.com: How Big-Money Lobbyists and the Media Are Losing Their Influence, and the Internet Is Giving Power Back to the People (ISBN 1-58063-163-0)and "Outrage" (ISBN 978-0-06-119540-2).
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's latest collaboration is
Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want To Kill Talk Radio, The Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, And Washington Lobbyists For Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us...And What To Do About It (ISBN 9780061718663), published in June 2008. Its jacket copy states, "In this hard-hitting call to arms, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann reveal the hundreds of ways American tax-payers are routinely fleeced--by our own government; by foreign countries like Dubai that are gobbling up American interests and spending millions to influence government decisions and American public opinion; by Washington lobbying firms that are pushing the agendas of corrupt foreign dictators on Capitol Hill; and by hedge-fund billionaires collecting huge tax breaks courtesy of the IRS." The book also predicts how election of Obama would ruin the economy and lead to a stock market collapse.
His latest book is "Catastrophe", which was released in June 2009.
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