Walter Shapiro – Journalist and Author

Interviewer: Dr. Michael Nelson

Read or Download a complete transcription of the Walter Shapiro interview.

Walter Shapiro covered the 2004 election as a journalist for USA Today and as the author of One-Car Caravan: On the Road with the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In. Currently a columnist for PoliticsDaily.com, Shapiro has covered the last eight presidential campaigns as a columnist and political reporter. Along the way, he has worked for two newspapers (USA Today and the Washington Post), two news weeklies (Time and Newsweek), two monthlies (Esquire and the Washington Monthly) and two online magazines (Salon and Slate).

Shapiro spent the first four years of the Clinton administration writing a monthly column (“Our Man in the White House”) for Esquire. From 1987-93, he was a senior writer for Time and was also the magazine’s correspondent covering the 1992 Clinton campaign. At Newsweek (1983-87), he was the lead political writer. He was on the reporting staff of the Washington Post from 1979-83. Prior to joining the Post, he served as a White House speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and a special assistant and speechwriter for Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall. And in 1972, he ran for Congress from Michigan, finishing second in a six-way primary.1

1 Biography of Walter Shapiro, PoliticsDaily.com, http://www.politicsdaily.com/walter-shapiro/