Lewis H. Butler received his AB, Bachelor of Laws degree from Princeton University, and his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1952. He spent 10 years there practicing law as a partner in a local law firm, in addition to serving as chairman of the California State Bar Committee. In April 1961 the United States Peace Corps initiated a nationwide search for potential overseas leaders for the fledgling program. Butler was chosen as one of only eighty-six individuals, from over one thousand possible applicants. He was chosen to act as deputy director of the Malaysian Peace Corps program in 1961 and stayed on as the national, Peace Corps Director for Malaysia from 1963 to 1964. He continued to serve as a consultant for the Peace Corps until 1968, evaluating educational programs in Somalia, Nigeria, and Nepal. He continued to serve his nation acting as assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, from April 1969 to July 1971. He tendered his resignation to President Nixon in 1971, objecting to the administrations decision to invade Cambodia. He remains politically active as of 2008, acting as chairman emeritus of California Tomorrow, chairman emeritus of the Ploughshares Fund, and as co-chair of the Revolt of the Elders Coalition.

J. Bryan Hehir is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the Secretary for Health Care and Social Services in the Archdiocese of Boston. His research and writing focus on ethics and foreign policy and the role of religion in world politics and in American society. Hehir served on the faculty of Georgetown University (1984 to 1992) and the Harvard Divinity School (1993 to 2001). His writings include: “The Moral Measurement of War: A Tradition of Continuity and Change; Military Intervention and National Sovereignty; Catholicism and Democracy;” and “Social Values and Public Policy: A Contribution from a Religious Tradition.”

Mark Shields is an American political columnist and commentator. Since 1988, Shields has provided weekly political analysis and commentary for PBS' award-winning *The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer*. Shields is also a regular panelist on *Inside Washington*, the weekly public affairs show that is seen on both PBS and ABC. For 17 years, Shields was moderator and panelist on CNN's *Capital Gang*. In 1968, Shields went to work for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. He later held leadership positions in the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie and Morris Udall, and was political director for Sargent Shriver when he ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket in 1972. Over more than a decade, he helped manage state and local campaigns in some 38 states. In 1979, Shields became an editorial writer for *The Washington Post*. He began writing a column the same year that is now distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate. He's covered the last 11 presidential campaigns and attended 17 national party conventions. Shields has taught American politics and the press at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Georgetown University's Graduate School of Public Policy, and he was a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy Institute of Politics. He's author of* On the Campaign Trail*, about the 1984 presidential campaign.

Scott Stossel has been associated with *the Atlantic* since 1992 when, shortly after graduating from Harvard, he joined the staff and helped to launch *The Atlantic Online*. In 1996, he moved to *The American Prospect* where, over the course of seven years, he served as associate editor, executive editor, and culture editor. He rejoined *the Atlantic* staff in 2002. As a writer, Scott tends to focus on what Lionel Trilling called "the bloody crossroads where literature and politics meet." His articles have appeared in a wide array of publications, including *The New Yorker*,* The New Republic*, *The New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, and *The Boston Globe*. Along with writing and editing, Scott has taught courses in the American Studies Department at Trinity College. He currently divides his time between Washington and Boston, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

The son of an insurance company executive, Harris Wofford grew up in New York and, after a spell of military service, attended Chicago, Yale, and the overwhelmingly black Howard University, specifically chosen to broaden his understanding of civil rights issues first-hand. Wofford published two books on world government while an undergraduate and spent a brief period as an aide to Chester Bowles before devoting himself to law practice. He joined John Kennedy's presidential campaign and, together with Bowles, drafted the Democratic platform statement on civil rights. Wofford was appointed special civil rights assistant in the Kennedy administration but became disillusioned by the pace of change and in 1962 moved to Ethiopia to head the operations of the Peace Corps. From 1966 until 1978 Wofford was primarily engaged in academic life, first as president of SUNY's progressive Old Westbury campus and then as president of Bryn Mawr. He published his memoirs *Of Kennedys and Kings*. After a brief return to private practice in Philadelphia, Wofford served as chair of the Pennsylvania state Democratic Party and was then appointed by Governor Casey to be the state Secretary of Labor and Industry. In April 1991, when Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz was killed in an air crash, Casey appointed Wofford to fill the post until a special election could be held in November. In that election Wofford emphasized the health care issue and against the odds beat Richard Thornburgh, Bush's former Attorney-General. The result was widely interpreted as an early indication of the Bush administration's weakness on domestic policy and the electoral salience of the health care issue. Democratic presidential candidates then addressed the theme of health care and for a time Wofford was spoken of as vice-presidential material for Clinton. However, Wofford himself was not able to entrench his position and in 1994 he lost the Senate seat to the young Republican candidate Rich Santorum.

Chris Matthews hosts *Hardball with Chris Matthews*, Monday through Friday on MSNBC. Matthews is also the host of *The Chris Matthews Show*, a syndicated weekly news program produced by NBC News and distributed by NBC Universal Television Distribution. Matthews is a regular commentator on NBCs "Today" show. A television news anchor with remarkable depth of experience, Matthews has distinguished himself as a broadcast journalist, newspaper bureau chief, Presidential speechwriter, and best-selling author. Matthews covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first all-races election in South Africa and the Good Friday Peace Talks in Northern Ireland. In 1997 and 1998, his digging in the National Archives produced a series of San Francisco Examiner scoops on the Nixon presidential tapes. Matthews has covered American presidential election campaigns since 1988, including the five-week recount of 2000. In 2005 Matthews covered the funeral of Pope John Paul II. In March 2004, he received the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. He has also been awarded The Abraham Lincoln Award from the Union League of Philadelphia and in 2005 he received the Gold Medal Award from the Pennsylvania Society.