“The open mind never acts: when we have done our utmost to arrive at a reasonable conclusion, we still - must close our minds for the moment with a snap, and act dogmatically on our conclusions”
--George Bernard Shaw
If Mr. Shaw is right, then you have to wonder how Arianna Huffington has managed to achieve her many accomplishments.
Huffington has spent a career all over the political map. She has changed her views more often than a little girl changes party dresses before her sixth birthday party.
Huffington first gained prominence in her adopted England (she was born Arianna Stassinopoulos in Athens, Greece) as the first elected female president of the Cambridge Union, anti-feminist author, and girlfriend of The Times columnist Bernard Levin, 22 years her senior.
After a breakup from Levin she would leave for the United States, and be seen on the arm with then California Governor Jerry Brown prior to his relationship with Linda Ronstadt.
At a party in New York she met oil millionaire Michael Huffington, a friend of the Bush family and a conservative politician. After their marriage he ran successfully for Congress, but then lost in a senate race to Diane Feinstein in 1994. He spent $28 million of his own money on the senate race.
During her marriage Arianna was a favorite of conservative radio and television. Her Gabor-sister accent worked well as a counter-point to liberal pundits. Columns by Arianna often appeared in the conservative National Review.
In 1997 Michael and Arianna divorced. A year later Michael announcing his bisexuality. Terms of the divorce were not revealed, but Arianna has led an elite life with only limited source of income besides what came from the divorce.
Arianne co-hosted a public radio show titled Left, Right & Center, a show were she has spent time comfortably sitting in each of the three seats. By the California recall and gubernatorial election in 2003, Huffington was a moderate, and ran for governor as an independent, coming in fifth after withdrawing from the race with three weeks remaining.
“I left the Republican Party [because] my views of the role of government changed. I used to think that the private sector would solve many of the major problems we are facing--poverty, inequality. And then I saw firsthand that this wasn't going to happen.”
By the time Huffington started the HuffingtonPost in 2005, she was then sitting in the Left seat, with HUfPo being one of the premier liberal blog sites on the Internet.
She says her change from moderate to liberal had much to do with the treatment of Sen. John Kerry when he ran for President in 2004. Many of her posts on her Web site have been warnings against potential “swift-boating” by the GOP in 2008.
Much like her political convictions, Huffington’s style is constantly growing and changing. She is developing a Web friendly writing style, with shorter paragraphs and numerous links to outside sources. Her posts generally lack frills, and get right to the point.
In her most recent column, she summarizes John McCain’s campaign:
McCain's campaign was all about experience -- until he picked Palin. It was all about putting country first -- until he picked Palin. It was all about the success of the surge -- until everyone from General Petraeus and the authors of the latest NIE made it clear that victory in Iraq exists only in McCain's and Palin's stump speeches. It was all about William Ayers -- until voters rejected that line of attack. It was all about national security -- until the economy collapsed.
HufPo is the fourth most linked to Web site, according to Technorati.
“People still marvel at her ability to keep reinventing herself,” says Washington Post and CNN media critic Howard Kurtz. “But even skeptics recognize that she has built something in the Huffington Post. She’s no longer the political gadfly trying to sell herself. Now she’s selling something much larger.”
HufPo is dominated by blogs by her many friends and associates, with none of the bloggers getting paid for their writings. Comedian Tracey Ullman imitates Huffington is her comedy routine, asking her to write for the site: “Daaahling, would you like to blaaagh?”
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