After attending Columbia University, Dick Morris
began what would become a very successful and lu-
crative career as a political strategist. Throughout
the 1970’s and 1980’s, he assisted various Republi-
can and Democratic politicians with their political
campaigns. In 1977, Arkansas attorney general Bill
Clinton hired Morris as a political adviser for his up-
coming 1978 gubernatorial race in Arkansas. Clin-
ton won the election, but the campaign was the be-
ginning of a turbulent professional relationship
between the two men.
In 1992, Clinton was elected as president of the
United States. Then, in 1994, the Republicans took
control of both the House of Representatives and
the Senate. In response, Clinton secretly hired Mor-
ris to help him with his 1996 reelection campaign.
Morris’s three-pronged approach to winning the
presidential election for Clinton involved campaign-
ing on the same issues that the Republicans used to
gain control of Congress in 1994, implementing an
early but aggressive television advertising campaign,
and relying heavily on political polling to guide his
campaign strategy.
On August 29, 1996, the same day that Clinton ac-
cepted the Democratic presidential nomination,Star
magazine published an article about Morris having a
long-term paid relationship with Sherry Rowlands, a
high-priced prostitute. The ensuing scandal de-
stroyed Morris’s reputation as a political adviser, and
he resigned from the Clinton campaign. Morris re-
bounded from the scandal by using his talents as a
campaign strategist to reinvent himself. In 1997, he
publishedBehind the Oval Office, an inside account of
Clinton’s reelection campaign. In 1999, he pub-
lishedThe New Prince, a guide to political strategy.
Morris also established himself as a political com-
mentator and by 1998 was appearing regularly on
the Fox News Channel. That year, he was hired to
write a weekly political column for theNew York Post.
In 1999, he was also hired to write a syndicated politi-
cal column for United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Impact During the 1996 presidential campaign,
Morris worked for President Clinton as his confiden-
tial campaign strategist. His brilliant political in-
sights and campaign strategy helped Clinton win a
second term in office. Unfortunately, Morris also be-
came notorious for his long-term paid relationship
with a prostitute. Ultimately, he used his talents as a
campaign strategist to transform himself publicly
from a disgraced political adviser to a celebrity politi-
cal commentator.Further Reading
Morris, Dick.Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presi-
dency in the Nineties. New York: Random House,
1997.
_______.The New Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the
Twenty-first Centur y. Los Angeles: Renaissance
Books, 1999.
Weisberg, Jacob. “Who Is Dick Morris?”New York28,
no. 31 (August, 1995): 34-26, 86.
Bernadette Zbicki HeineySee also Cable television; Clinton, Bill; Elections
in the United States, midterm; Elections in the
United States, 1992; Elections in the United States,
1996; Journalism; Republican Revolution; Scandals. Morrison, Toni
Identification African American novelist
Born February 18, 1931; Lorain, OhioIn 1993, Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Litera-
ture, becoming the first African American woman to win
the prize.In the press release announcing Toni Morrison as
the 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the
Swedish Academy noted both the uniqueness of
Morrison’s vision as well as her connections to the
American tradition: “One can delight in her unique
narrative technique, varying from book to book and
developed independently, even though its roots
stem from [William] Faulkner and American writers
from further south.” The statement hints at the im-
portance of the Morrison’s work for the American
canon. Morrison bridges chasms that have long di-
vided Americans: black and white, male and female,
urban and rural, lowbrow and highbrow. The impor-
tance of her work grows directly from what it pro-
vides all Americans and all human beings: a way to
view the world and its far-from-tranquil history with
realism, humanity, and humor. She unflinchingly
examines the most painful circumstances of Ameri-
can life—slavery, discrimination, even incest and in-
fanticide—and yet still manages to find something
redeeming and even humorous in human beings
and in the American experience.The Nineties in America Morrison, Toni 585