MATT TOWERY writes a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate, and is CEO of a major nonpartisan opinion research firm which polled the entire 2008 presidential contest as reported by major national newspapers and news networks as well as exclusively for Politico. An attorney, Towery began his career in politics and later in the media after having won the National Bicentennial Debate Championship and becoming a member of the staff of a United States Senator, and a debate and campaign strategist for Newt Gingrich in the early 1980s. He served, over the next two decades, as a strategist in numerous political campaigns. He was a nominee for Lt. Governor of Georgia, is a former nationally recognized state legislator, and was chairman of former House Speaker Gingrich’s political organization in the 1990s. He is a graduate of England’s Cambridge University (M. Phil International Relations) as well as Florida’s oldest law school, Stetson University’s College of Law (Cum Laude). He is the author of several books including the groundbreaking Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America. In 2007 he was nominated for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his work to free a young African American student who was sentenced to jail under what Towery argued was a misinterpretation of a law he helped enact.