Ms. Clift has been a contributing editor of Newsweek magazine since 1994. She writes on the Washington power structure, the influence of women in politics and other issues.
She is currently assigned to follow the Democratic-controlled Congress and the contenders for the 2008 presidential nomination in both parties.
Clift began her career as one of the first women at Newsweek to move from the job of secretary to reporter.
At Newsweek’s Atlanta bureau, Clift covered Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency and then followed Carter to Washington as Newsweek’s White House correspondent, a position she held until 1985, when she left briefly to serve as White House correspondent for The Los Angeles Times.
She returned to Newsweek the following year to cover the Iran-Contra scandal, which tarnished the Ronald Reagan White House.
Clift was a key member of Newsweek‘s 1992 election team, following the campaign of Bill Clinton from its start to inauguration day.
In 1992 she was named deputy Washington bureau chief. Clift is a regular panelist on the television talk show “The McLaughlin Group” and a political analyst for the Fox News Network.
She is also co-chair of the board of the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Clift and her late husband, Tom Brazaitis, who was a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote two books together, “War Without Bloodshed” and “Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling.”
Her book “Founding Sisters” is about the passage of the 19th amendment, giving women the vote.
Clift’s most recent book is “Two Weeks of Life,” an analysis of the Terri Schiavo affair combined with an account of Tom Brazaitis’ death from cancer.
Schiavo and Brazaitis died within a day of each other.
The book alternates between their stories to provide a moving commentary on how we deal, or fail to deal, with dying in modern America.