U.S. Presidency

Dowd's new book collects more than 100 of her columns from the New York Times. Bushworld begins with George H.W. Bush and continues with the presidency of George W. Bush. Dowd won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her commentary on the Clinton impeachment.

Maher hosts the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, which just began a new season. Like his previous show, Politically Incorrect, he features a roundtable of guests who make jokes and talk politics. The show is broadcast Friday nights at 11 p.m. Maher is also the author of When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden.

Jackson is the director of Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project that aims to reduce deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Jackson will talk about present-day political ads. Jackson reported on Washington and national politics for The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. He is the author of Honest Graft: Big Money and the American Political Process.

The new online exhibition at The American Museum of the Moving Image is called "The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004". Schwartz is the chief curator of film at the museum. He'll talk about the history of political commercials from their inception in 1952 to the present.

The Democratic senator from West Virginia has served in Congress for 51 years, 45 of them as a senator. Byrd is ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and has twice been president pro tempore of the Senate. He is also a former majority leader. Byrd is author of a new book called Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. Byrd is a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and has criticized the most of the Bush Administration's post-Sept. 11 policies. He is also author of a four-volume history of the Senate.

The son of the late President Ronald Reagan has been invited to speak at the Democratic convention next week. He and his mother have become outspoken proponents of stem cell research. Reagan has edited the book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President.

What does it say about electoral politics that "values," formerly a political bromide, is now a battle cry?

Allen writes for the National Catholic Reporter. He's a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR, and he writes a weekly Internet column called The Word from Rome. His new book is called, All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks.

Trippi was the campaign manager for Howard Dean during his bid to be the democratic presidential nominee. Using the Internet, Trippi turned a little-known candidate into a frontrunner. His new book is The Revolution Will Not be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Trippi worked on his first presidential campaign for Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1980. He also worked with the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Richard Gephardt.

The Fresh Air linguist comments on the speaking styles of 2004 presidential candidates John Kerry and George Bush.

Critic John Powers reflects upon recent media attention on former presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

He's just published his autobiography, My Life. Clinton talks about what he knew about Osama bin Laden during his administration and how he tried to strike a balance between informing and terrifying Americans. Clinton currently lives in Chappaqua, New York and works in Harlem.

Donna Brazile managed the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. She's written a new memoir about her years in politics, Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics. Brazile is currently chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She is also a political commentator on CNN's Inside Politics.

His new book, Moyers on America (The New Press) is a first-ever collection of his essays and speeches. Moyers is the host of Now with Bill Moyers on PBS. He was one of the organizers of the Peace Corps, spokesperson for President Lyndon Johnson, a senior correspondent for CBS News, and producer of many public TV series. Moyers has won 30 Emmy Awards.

Wilson is a former career diplomat, serving from 1976 to 1998. He had diplomatic posts throughout Africa and was ambassador to Gabon. Wilson was the acting ambassador to Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. President George W. Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union address, stated that "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." But in February 2002 Wilson investigated reports of Iraq's attempt to buy uranium from Niger, and found no evidence of such an attempt.

Producer Raney Aronson is the producer, writer and director of the new PBS Frontline documentary, The Jesus Factor (April 29, at 9 p.m. on many stations). It examines President Bush's evangelical Christian faith, how he became a born-again Christian and the impact it has on his politics. Also, Wayne Slater, Austin bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News. He's followed Bush's political career, and appears in the documentary. He is also the author of the book, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush President.

Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

Woodward's new book Plan of Attack is a behind-the-scenes look at how and why the Bush administration decided to wage war in Iraq. Woodward interviewed more than 70 government officials for the book, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Woodward is the author of a number of best-selling books, including Bush at War and his first, All the President's Men, written in 1974 with Carl Bernstein about Watergate.

TV critic David Bianculli looks at The Apprentice, the NBC reality show. After all other contestants are eliminated, the winner gets to work as a corporate president for Donald Trump.

He was the in-house humor writer of the Clinton White House. He's written the new memoir, Clinton & Me: A Real Life Political Comedy.