Dick Polman

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at "Newsworks" - newsworks.org/polman - and the full-time "writer in residence" at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, University of Pennsylvania.

Polman grew up in western Massachusetts and studied at George Washington University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Public Affairs, focusing on politics and policy, and served as managing editor of the college newspaper. He was a metro columnist at The Hartford Courant and was the founding editor of The Hartford Advocate before joining The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1984, where he spent 22 years, most notably as the national political writer/columnist. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 United States presidential campaigns. He is described by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the United States' top political reporters, and by ABC News as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation."