David Frum

David J. Frum (born 1960) is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and the author of the first "insider" book about the Bush presidency. He remains involved in political activities in both the United States and Canada, and his editorial columns have appeared in a variety of Canadian and American magazines and newspapers.

Background

Born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Frum is the son of Barbara Frum, one of Canada's most respected and influential journalists. His father, Murray Frum is a real estate developer and his sister, Linda Frum is a journalist. David Frum is married to writer Danielle Crittenden, the step-daughter of former Toronto Sun editor Peter Worthington.

He graduated from the University of Toronto Schools in 1978 where he was the School Captain. He then attended Yale University in 1982 where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and then Harvard Law School in 1987 . He served as an editor on the editorial page of the 'Wall Street Journal from 1989 until 1992, and then as a columnist for Forbes magazine in 1992-94.

From 1994 through 2000 he was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research.

Following the election of George W. Bush in 2000, Frum was appointed to a position within the White House. Still a Canadian citizen, he was one of the few foreign nationals working within the Bush White House. He served as Special Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Speechwriting from January 2001 to February 2002.

Frum strongly supported John Roberts, George W. Bush's nominee for Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. However, like many conservatives, he opposed the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, on the grounds that she was insufficiently qualified for the post, as well as insufficiently conservative.

David Frum now speaks on behalf of the American Enterprise Institute along with Frederick Kagan on CNN. Their views are still sympathetic to neo-conservative ideology.

On October 11, 2007, Frum announced on his blog that he was joining Rudolph Giuliani's presidential campaign as a senior policy adviser.

Writings

His first book, Dead Right, was released in 1994. The New York Times called it "...the smartest book written from the inside about the American conservative movement." He is the author also of What's Right (1996) and How We Got Here a history of 1970s published in 2000.

In January 2003, he released The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, the first insider account of the Bush presidency. Frum is widely cited as having authored the phrase "axis of evil," which he discusses in his book. In fact, though, his original phrasing was "axis of hatred". As the title suggests, Frum also discusses how the events of September 11, 2001 redefined the country and the President. Frum writes, "George W. Bush was hardly the obvious man for the job. But by a very strange fate, he turned out to be, of all unlikely things, the right man."

Frum's latest book, An End to Evil, was co-written with Richard Perle. It provided a defense of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and advocated regime change in Iran and Syria. Furthermore, it called for a tougher policy with North Korea, as well as advocating a tougher U.S. stance against Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations in order to "win the war on terror" (the book's by-line). Fareed Zakaria critiqued it in a New York Times Sunday Book Review essay, writing that "To transform the world, you do actually need to engage in it."

Frum writes a weekly column for Canada's National Post newspaper and is a commentator for American Public Radio's "Marketplace." His writings appear frequently in the New York Times, Italy's Il Foglio, and the Daily Telegraph. He also writes a blog, David Frum's Diary at the National Review Online Web site.

Political views

Frum has stated that he does not categorically oppose first trimester abortions, but believes in state-by-state regulations on the matter.

Other opinions

• Political novels he likes: "I think Primary Colors [by Joe Klein] is one of the very best novels ever written about American politics, fully the equal of The Last Hurrah [by Edwin O'Connor]. (All the King's Men [by Robert Penn Warren] is in a class by itself.)"

Bibliography

• An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror (with Richard Perle), 2003 (ISBN 1-4000-6194-6)
• The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, 2003 (ISBN 0-375-50903-8)
• How We Got Here: The 70's: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life--For Better or Worse, 2000 (ISBN 0-465-04196-5)
• What's Right: The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America, 1997 (ISBN 0-465-04198-1)
• Dead Right, 1995 (ISBN 0-465-09825-8)

External links

• David Frum's website
• David Frum's Diary blog at National Review Online
• "Proud wife turns 'axis of evil' speech into a resignation letter", Matthew Engel, The Guardian, February 27, 2002
• A critical review of An End to Evil by Pat Buchanan, The American Conservative, March 1, 2004
• A critical review of An End to Evil" by Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, January 30, 2004

Videos

• Conservatives and the World Online conference where David Frum defends US policy in Iraq and the Middle East but predicts the end of Republican dominance of the White House. Part of the conference Conservative Predominance in the U.S. : A Moment or an Era ? Videos and texts online.