John Avlon is senior columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He coedited the new anthology Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns and is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics as well as Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, published by BeastBooks. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for the New York Sun.  He is a CNN contributor.