Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...

columnist for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the

Center for Public Justice The Center for Public Justice is an American Christian think tank which undertakes to bring a Christian worldview to bear on policy issues.Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

. He served as President George W. Bush's chief

speechwriter A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are employed by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors. They can also b ...

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 The White House Iraq Group (aka, White House Information Group or WHIG) was a working group of the White House set up in August 2002 and tasked with disseminating information supporting the positions of the George W. Bush administration relati ...

. Gerson helped write the inaugural address for the second inauguration of George W. Bush, which called for neo-conservative intervention and

nation-building Nation-building is constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. Nation-building aims at the unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run. According ...

around the world to effect the spread of democracy to third world countries. In 2018, Gerson and commentator

Amy Holmes Amy Mulenga Holmes (born July 25, 1973) is a Zambian-born American journalist and political commentator. Holmes co-hosts, with fellow commentator Michael Gerson, a politically conservative-oriented talk show on PBS titled ''In Principle.'' She is ...

co-hosted ''In Principle'', a politically conservative-oriented television talk show that ran for eight episodes on PBS.

Early life and education

Gerson was born on May 15, 1964, in

Belmar, New Jersey Belmar is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 5,794, and raised in an

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

familyNew Yorker Magazine: "Letter From Washington: The Believer – George W. Bush's loyal speechwriter" by Jeffrey Goldberg
February 13, 2006 , ''"Gerson, whose parents were evangelical Christians (his last name comes from a Jewish grandfather)"'' in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Westminster Christian Academy for high school. His paternal grandfather was Jewish. He attended

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

for a year and then transferred to

Wheaton College Wheaton College may refer to: * Wheaton College (Illinois), a private Christian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois * Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachus ...

in Illinois, graduating in 1986.

Career

Before joining the Bush Administration, he was a senior policy advisor with The

Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the preside ...

, a conservative public policy research institution. He also worked at various times as an aide to Indiana Senator

Dan Coats Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a ...

and a speechwriter for the presidential campaign of

Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his t ...

before briefly leaving the political world to cover it as a journalist for '' U.S. News & World Report''. Gerson also worked at one point as a

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often ...

for Charles Colson. In early 1999,

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on Augu ...

recruited Gerson for the Bush campaign. Gerson was named by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' as one of "The 25 Most Influential

Evangelicals Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

In America." The February 7, 2005, issue listed Gerson as the ninth most influential evangelical that year.

Speechwriter

Gerson joined the Bush campaign before 2000 as a speechwriter and went on to head the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

speechwriting team. "No one doubts that he did his job exceptionally well," wrote

Ramesh Ponnuru Ramesh Ponnuru (; born August 16, 1974) is an American conservative thinker, political pundit, and journalist. He has been a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 2012. He is the editor of ''National Review'' magazine, a col ...

in a 2007 article otherwise very critical of Gerson in ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

''. According to Ponnuru, Bush's speechwriters had more prominence in the administration than their predecessors did under previous presidents because Bush's speeches did most of the work of defending the president's policies, since administration spokesmen and press conferences did not. On the other hand, he wrote, the speeches would announce new policies that were never implemented, making the speechwriting in some ways less influential than ever. On June 14, 2006, it was announced that Gerson was leaving the White House to pursue other writing and policy work. He was replaced as Bush's chief speechwriter by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' chief editor William McGurn.

Lines attributed to Gerson

Gerson proposed the use of a "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" mixed-metaphor during a September 5, 2002, meeting of the

, in an effort to sell the American public on the nuclear dangers posed by

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

. According to ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' columnist Michael Isikoff,

The original plan had been to place it in an upcoming presidential speech, but WHIG members fancied it so much that when the ''Times'' reporters contacted the White House to talk about their upcoming piece
bout aluminum tubes Bout can mean: People * Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer * Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland * Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed ins ...
one of them leaked Gerson's phrase – and the administration would soon make maximum use of it.

Gerson said one of his favorite speeches was given at the

National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the ca ...

on September 14, 2001, a few days after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, which included the following passage: "Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn." Gerson was credited with coining such phrases as "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and "the armies of compassion". His noteworthy phrases for Bush are said to include " Axis of Evil," a phrase adapted from "axis of hatred," itself suggested by fellow speechwriter David Frum but deemed too mild.

Criticism of Gerson's speechwriting

In an article by Matthew Scully (one of Bush's speechwriters) published in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' (September 2007) Gerson was criticized for seeking the limelight, taking the credit for other people's work and for creating a false image of himself: "No good deed went unreported, and many things that never happened were reported as fact. For all of our chief speechwriter's finer qualities, the firm adherence to factual narrative is not a strong point." Of particular note is the invention of the phrase "axis of evil." Scully claims that the phrase "axis of hatred" was coined by David Frum and forwarded to colleagues by email. The word "hatred" was changed to "evil" by someone other than Gerson and was done because "hatred" seemed the more melodramatic word at the time. Scully also had this to say about Gerson:

My most vivid memory of Mike at
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...
is one I have labored in vain to shake. We were working on a State of the Union address in John cConnells office when suddenly Mike was called away for an unspecified appointment, leaving us to 'keep going'. We learned only later, from a chance conversation with his secretary, where he had gone, and it was a piece of Washington self-promotion for the ages: At the precise moment when the
State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current condit ...
address was being drafted at the White House by John and me, Mike was off t a Washington D.C. Starbucks storepretending to craft the State of the Union in longhand for the benefit of a reporter.

''The Washington Post'' columnist

After leaving the White House, Gerson wrote for ''

'' magazine for a time. On May 16, 2007, Gerson began his tenure as a twice-weekly columnist for ''

''. His columns appeared on Wednesdays and Fridays. Gerson, a neo-conservative, repeatedly criticized other conservatives in his column and conservatives returned the favor. One of Gerson's first columns was entitled "Letting Fear Rule", in which he compared skeptics of President Bush's immigration reform bill to nativist bigots of the 1880s. In October 2017, Gerson referred to President Donald Trump's "fundamental unfitness for high office" and asked whether he is "psychologically and morally equipped to be president? And could his unfitness cause permanent damage to the country?" He cited "the leaked cries for help coming from within the administration. They reveal a president raging against enemies, obsessed by slights, deeply uninformed and incurious, unable to focus, and subject to destructive whims". In August 2019, Gerson wrote that it is a "scandal" that "white evangelical Protestants" are not in a state of "panic" about their own demographic decline in the United States.

Personal life

His wife Dawn was born in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. She was adopted by an American family when she was six years old and raised in the Midwestern United States. The couple, who met in high school, have two sons and resided in

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

Health and death

Gerson suffered from

major depressive disorder Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

, for which he was hospitalized at least once. Gerson was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2013. He also had

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

. He died from kidney cancer at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on November 17, 2022, at age 58.

Published works

* *

References

External links

A profile of Gerson
in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''
Faithfully and Politically Present
''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evan ...

''
''The Washington Post'', "Biography: Michael Gerson"

* ttps://www.pbs.org/show/in-principle/ ''In Principle''at PBS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerson, Michael 1964 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American evangelicals American male non-fiction writers American people of Jewish descent American political commentators American political writers Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. Deaths from kidney cancer George W. Bush administration personnel Missouri Republicans Neoconservatism PBS people People from Belmar, New Jersey People with mood disorders People with Parkinson's disease Speechwriters for presidents of the United States The Heritage Foundation United States presidential advisors Virginia Republicans The Washington Post people Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Writers from Alexandria, Virginia Writers from New Jersey White House Directors of Speechwriting