Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and political analyst living in the Washington, D.C., area. Mona Charen received her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University, with honors. Mona Charen also holds a degree in law from George Washington University. Mona Charen began her career at National Review magazine, where Mona Charen served as editorial assistant. On her first tax return at the age of 22, Mona Charen listed her occupation as "pundit," explaining later, "You have to think big." In 1984, Mona Charen joined the White House staff, serving first as Nancy Reagan's speechwriter and later as associate director of the Office of Public Liaison. In the latter post, Mona Charen lectured widely on the administration's Central America policy. Later in Mona Charen's White House career, Mona Charen worked in the Public Affairs office helping to craft the president's overall communications strategy. In 1986, Mona Charen left the White House to join the presidential quest of then-Congressman Jack Kemp as a speechwriter. Mona Charen launched her syndicated column in 1987, and it has become one of the fastest-growing columns in the industry. It is featured in more than 200 papers, including the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Washington Times. Mona Charen spent six years as a regular commentator on CNN's "Capital Gang" and "Capital Gang Sunday," and has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. Mona Charen is the author of two best sellers: "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First" (2003), and "Do-Gooders: How Liberals Harm Those They Claim to Help -- and the Rest of Us" (2005). Mona Charen is a frequent guest on television and radio public affairs programs and is married with three children. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2012 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Fri, 18 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT Fri, 18 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ The president dropped by Barnard College (my alma mater) this week to deliver the commencement address. It wasn't long planned. No, the college had lined-up a woman speaker -- Jill Abramson, editor of The New York... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/18/obama_barnard_and_women 9c1240bc-5ea1-4e6c-b735-09e311eed1d9 Fri, 18 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT Appearing on ABC's "This Week," former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (why do they give him a forum?) offered the Democratic Party's defense of the Obama economy. The Republicans, Spitzer sputtered "want to go back to medieval... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/15/spitzer_wants_to_focus_on_economy_really 2d16f493-bd61-4555-85de-64dfa7b54516 Tue, 15 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT Now that President Obama has "evolved" on the matter of same-sex marriage to the position favored by "enlightened" Americans, this would seem to be a good time for some rhetorical... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/11/to_bigotry_no_sanction 214e2d6b-0021-44bf-84e0-41bbf72d5f7b Fri, 11 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT The theme song of a popular TV show from the last decade featured the lyric "I worry all the time. If you paid attention, you'd be worried, too." It's a wise posture when analyzing the slow-motion... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/08/extremism_in_defense_of_the_welfare_state 0ade2b48-2ef3-4d72-bad5-05f752300b31 Tue, 08 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT It's hard to know which is worse: one's grief over Chen Guangcheng's fate or the fury over the Obama administration's abandonment of him to that fate. Chen was already an internationally known... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/04/obamas_disgraceful_abandonment_of_chen_guangcheng 17a14aea-8a1c-4641-9d2d-f015c395d248 Fri, 04 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT What do you suppose are the chances that the Secret Service agents who embarrassed themselves, possibly endangered the life of the president of the United States, and very likely damaged their marriages and the lives of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/05/01/was_the_secret_service_pornified e3038923-abe7-4735-9495-439650c44475 Tue, 01 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT Every new datum on economic stagnation -- such as Thursday's Labor Department announcement that unemployment claims remain at a three-month high -- increases the temptation to compare the 2012 presidential race... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/27/carter_redux bd56a3ca-14aa-45d4-ac8b-fe21bfd7d684 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT In a better world, debates about science -- and nearly everything else -- would be conducted without resort to demagoguery, sentimentality, cynical manipulation, or hysteria. In the world we inhabit, those tactics are... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/24/cuddly_symbols_not_cooperating_in_climate_panic 65c3fdff-fe3e-4f9c-b3c6-dc29718da23c Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT "Where are all the moderate Muslims?" It's a question often posed by Americans who watch with disgust as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other apologists for radical Islam hog all of the attention. CAIR,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/20/if_cairs_attacking_you_you_must_be_good 4808c92a-cb91-43dd-a0a5-9daddf3fd723 Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT "Romney Camp Stumbles on Pay Equity Question" crowed The New York Times last week. "The Caucus" blog was referring to a conference call in which Romney top aides "seemed uncertain" about how to respond to a question... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/17/dont_be_cowed_by_the_new_york_times 713c59b8-cd22-4ecb-ae71-fa9539089805 Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT The president is barnstorming around the nation hoping to enrage voters at the injustice that the wealthy pay fewer taxes than the middle class. "Now that's wrong," Obama objected, "That's not... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/13/you_pay_for_warren_buffets_medicare bc34e3dc-f3e5-4052-8042-0b26727b22ca Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT Last month the Obamas hosted a White House conference on bullying. It was intended as a show of support for victims, but watching this president in action, it might just as easily have been a tutorial. We've gotten... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/10/obamas_contempt_for_law_chavismo_comes_to_washington b1f23d83-5ee9-44c5-be55-e837f893764e Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT When the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama, many, myself included, felt that the Norwegian committee had so embarrassed itself as to devalue the prize permanently. A Dallas service station sign, at the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/06/why_not_junk_the_nobel_peace_prizes 08716ba6-adea-436b-b224-b3464cac6f13 Fri, 06 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT When he was first sworn in as Attorney General, Eric Holder made one of the more obtuse comments in political history. When it comes to issues of race, Holder declared, we are "a nation of cowards ... we, as average... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2012/04/03/if_obama_had_a_son 076ecf91-9f21-4e8a-ba40-5732c47e05cf Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT