Anita Dunn

Anita Dunn is the interim White House Communications Director. Previously, she was a Democratic political consultant with a Washington-based consulting firm, Squier Knapp Dunn Communications, and was a top adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Biography

Dunn, began her career in the Carter White House, first as an intern for White House Communications Director Gerald Rafshoon and then worked for chief of staff Hamilton Jordan. She worked on the campaign of Senator John Glenn (D-OH), and on Capitol Hill before joining the firm founded by Bob Squier and Bill Knapp in 1993. She has been the top adviser to Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), including serving as the chief strategist for his presidential campaign, Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). She was hired by then-Senator Barack Obama in 2006 to direct communications and strategy for his political action committee, The Hopefund. This move signaled to many that Obama was nearing a run for the presidency. While advising Hopefund and Obama in 2006, she was instrumental in the preparations for the launch of Obama for America, and brought many key staffers to the Obama campaign with whom she had worked in Bayh or Daschle's offices. On October 15, 2009, a video of Anita Dunn aired on Glenn Beck's Fox News program of her speaking at a high school in June of this year saying that her two favorite political philosophers are "Mother Teresa and Mao Tse Tung."

Obama campaign

In April 2008, it was announced that Dunn, who had joined the Obama campaign in February, would be the director of communications, policy and research operations for Obama for America, where she held the title Senior Adviser and was one of the major decision makers of the Obama campaign. She was featured as one of four top advisers (along with David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Robert Gibbs) in a 60 Minutes interview held after President-elect Obama's November 4, 2008 victory speech at Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois. She was described, in the 60 Minutes interview, as, "a relative newcomer who handled communications, research and policy." During the presidential transition of 2008-09, Dunn trained White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Personal life

She is married to the President's personal lawyer, Robert Bauer, a partner at Perkins Coie who has been the general counsel of Obama for America since January 2007. They reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Newsweek named Dunn and Bauer the new "power couple" in Washington, D.C. in 2008.

Inspirational Figures

On October 15, 2009, the Glenn Beck program on Fox News exposed video of Dunn admitting that Mao Zedong, the former Communist Chinese leader, is one of her two favorite political philosophers, using his story of overtaking the Chinese Nationalists to motivate high school children.

Mother Teresa is briefly mentioned, but since she is a politically correct person to note, Anita Dunn's approval of a figure like Mao is more noteworthy.