Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Collection

Authors

Don Nicoll

Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

4-12-2001

Interview Number

MOH 267

Abstract

Lanny Davis was born December 12, 1945 and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He attended Yale University and then Yale Law School and was inspired by John Kennedy and the Vietnam War to enter into politics. Those two factors led him to Senator Muskie, for whom he campaigned. He is a close friend of Joe Lieberman and after spending his first couple years of law school campaigning for various Democratic candidates, he spent his last year working for Muskie. He was chairman of the Yale Daily News and became the National Youth Coordinator under Muskie. He wrote a book about this titled, The Emerging Democratic Majority; Lessons and Legacies from the New Politics. At the time of the interview, he had recently resigned from the Clinton staff and wrote another book, Truth to Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself : Notes from My White House Education. He currently practices law at Patten and Boggs in Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

Interview includes discussions of: working on the 1968 and 1972 Muskie campaigns; having a younger perspective; opinions on Vietnam; humorous campaign stories and mishaps; members of the Muskie staff; future political “spinner”; Anti-Nixon; working as Muskie’s National Youth Coordinator; and the incident in Providence.

Use Restrictions

Copyright Bates College. This transcript is provided for individual Research Purposes Only; for all other uses, including publication, reproduction and quotation beyond fair use, permission must be obtained in writing from: The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240-6018.

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