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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder - Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. More

Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal. He previously served as the politics editor, and is now a contributing editor, for The Atlantic, where he curated the influential Politics channel on TheAtlantic.com and contributed to the magazine. He was also a chief political consultant to CBS News. Earlier, at NJ's Hotline, Ambinder was the founding editor of "Hotline On Call," a pathbreaking political news blog. He also worked as a producer and reporter for the ABC News Political Unit and was one of the founders of ABC's "The Note." Born in New York City, raised in Central Florida, Ambinder is a 2001 graduate of Harvard and lives in Washington, D.C.

Gore Vidal On Obama: "Experience Mattered"

By Marc Ambinder
Oct 27 2009, 10:18 PM ET Comment

In an interview with author John Meroney, provocateur Gore Vidal has some choice words about politics. In the primaries, he supported Hillary Clinton. Here's what he says about Barack Obama:

"... And I've always been very pro-African-American - or whatever phrase we now use. I was curious to see what would happen when their time came. I was delighted when Obama appeared on the scene. But now it seems as though our original objection to him - that experience mattered - was well-founded."

And here's Vidal on Ted Kennedy's legacy:

It's nothing. But I predicted that at the beginning, when Jack started backing him for his U.S. Senate seat. Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who was a loyal Kennedy courtier, agreed. But Jack was funny about it. He never took Arthur seriously. He always called him "the movie critic." (Imitating JFK's accent) "What does 'the movie critic' have to say about this issue?" He liked to tease Arthur.

Read the rest, here.


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