Lawrence O’Donnell

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Lawrence O’Donnell : biography

November 7, 1951 –

Lawrence Francis O’Donnell, Jr. (born November 7, 1951) is an American political analyst, journalist, actor, producer, writer, and host of The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, a weeknight MSNBC opinion and news program. O’Donnell called himself a "practical European socialist" in a Newsmaker Interview dated November 11, 2005. He frequently filled in as host of Countdown on MSNBC before getting his own show on the cable network. Beginning 24 October 2011, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell switched time slots with The Ed Show, with Ed Schultz taking over the 8 p.m. Eastern slot, and O’Donnell returning to the 10 p.m. Eastern slot.

O’Donnell has also appeared as a political analyst on The McLaughlin Group, The Al Franken Show, and Countdown. He was an Emmy Award-winning producer and writer for the NBC series The West Wing (and played the role of the President’s father in flashbacks) and creator and executive producer of the NBC series Mister Sterling. He is also an occasional actor, appearing as a recurring supporting character on the HBO series Big Love, portraying an attorney. He began his career as an aide to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and was Staff Director for the Senate Finance Committee.

Personal life

O’Donnell was born in Boston, on November 7, 1951, the son of Frances Marie (née Buckley), an office manager, and Lawrence Francis O’Donnell, Sr., an attorney. He is of Irish descent. He attended St. Sebastian’s School (class of 1970), where he was captain of his baseball team, and graduated from Harvard College in 1976.The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress: 1994. Edited by Jeffrey B. Trammell and Steve Piacente, 695. Washington, D.C.: Almanac Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0-9626134-5-2. While at Harvard, he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon and was popular among its members due to his wit and sarcasm.Wright, Jeanne. "" (12 Aug 1994). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 14, 2010. In 1994, O’Donnell married television and movie actress Kathryn Harrold; they later divorced. O’Donnell and Harrold have a daughter, Elizabeth Buckley Harrold O’Donnell.

Political views

O’Donnell called himself a "practical European socialist" in a 2005 interview. Despite regularly expressing support for regulated capitalism and mixed economies, O’Donnell again declared himself a "socialist" on the November 6, 2010 Morning Joe show, stating: "I am not a progressive. I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to ‘progressive’. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I lie to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals." On the 1 August 2011 episode of The Last Word, O’Donnell further explained, "I have been calling myself a socialist ever since I first read the definition of socialism in the first economics class I took in college." O’Donnell went on to state that what he means by calling himself a socialist is

Not that we choose the socialist option every time but we do consider socialism a reasonable option under certain circumstances; in fact, under many circumstances. As any introductory economics course can tell you, there is no capitalist economy anywhere in the world, and there is no socialist economy anywhere in the world, not even Cuba. We are all mixed economies; that is, mixes of capitalism and socialism, and we all vary that mix in different ways. China has more capitalism, and a lot more capitalism, than has Cuba, but it also has a lot more socialism than we [the United States] do. Our socialist programs include the biggest government spending programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, as well as welfare, and the socialist program I hate the most, agriculture subsidies. Yes, I’m a socialist, but I hate bad socialism, and there is plenty of bad socialism out there, just like there is plenty of bad capitalism out there, like the capitalism that pollutes our rivers or makes health care too expensive for so many people. I can argue this because every side of this is true: capitalism is good, capitalism is bad; socialism is good, socialism is bad; all of those things are true at the same time. That’s why we have a mixed economy, an economy in which we are trying to use the best, most efficient forms of capitalism, and the best, most efficient forms of socialism, where necessary. So my full truth is I am as much a capitalist as I am a socialist; but since we live in the only mature country in the world where "socialist" is considered such a dirty word that no one would dare admit to being one, I feel more compelled to stand up for the socialist side of me than the capitalist side of me.O’Donnell, Lawrence, "Rewrite," The Last Word, MSNBC, 1 Aug 2011. Video available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/#43980204