Dick Polman is a veteran national political columnist and the "Writer in Residence" at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. He has taught there since 2003. He currently writes at dickpolman.substack.com. His political columns from 2019 to 2024 are archived at dickpolman.net. He previously was a columnist at ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' and WHYY News, the public media outlet in Philadelphia. Polman grew up in western

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and studied at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Public Affairs, focusing on politics and policy, and served as managing editor of the college newspaper. He was a metro columnist at ''

The Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven an ...

'' and, prior to that, he was the founding editor of '' The Hartford Advocate'' before joining ''The Inquirer'' in 1984. As an ''Inquirer'' writer, he covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

presidential campaigns. His ''Inquirer'' column ran from 2004 to 2012. His WHYY column ran from 2012 to 2019. He has been described by the ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

'' as one of the United States' top political reporters, and by

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation."

References

* * * Living people American male journalists George Washington University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-journalist-20thC-stub