"Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are." -- John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (born March 29, 1927) is an American television personality and political commentator. He created, produces and hosts the long-running political commentary series The McLaughlin Group as well as John McLaughlin's One On One.
"At the risk of sounding hopelessly romantic, love is the key element. I really love to play with different musicians who come from different cultural backgrounds.""I don't have any message in the music. Music will be fine as long as you take care of yourself.""I find Indian music very funky. I mean it's very soulful, with their own kind of blues. But it's the only other school on the planet that develops improvisation to the high degree that you find in jazz music. So we have a lot of common ground.""Interplay and interaction are the integral parts of music - they're as important as the notes.""The mathematics of rhythm are universal. They don't belong to any particular culture.""The moment you start to talk about playing music, you destroy music. It cannot be talked about. It can only be played, enjoyed and listened to.""There are two kinds of success. One is musical or artistic and the other is commercial.""You can have the greatest player in terms of mastering an instrument and you could be yawning your head off when you hear them. So, it's not what you do, but the way you're doing it and in the end that's all that we have."
McLaughlin earned two master's degrees (philosophy and English literature) from Boston College, and a Ph.D. (philosophy) from Columbia University. Upon entering the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church and being ordained a priest, McLaughlin spent years as a high school teacher at Fairfield College Preparatory School, a Jesuit prep school in Connecticut, where his arrogant mannerisms earned him the nickname "Father God." A Republican, he originally opposed the Vietnam War and, in 1970, sought permission from his order to run for a seat in the United States Senate, representing Rhode Island. His superiors denied him this, even though they did grant permission to fellow Jesuit Father Robert Drinan to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts. McLaughlin defied his superiors and ran anyway, losing to the incumbent four-term Senator John O. Pastore.
Through a friendship with Pat Buchanan, McLaughlin became a war supporter and a speech writer and advisor to U.S. President Richard Nixon. Because priests are not allowed to take on political jobs, he was ordered by his Jesuit superiors to return to Boston and, rather than obey, he left the Society of Jesus.
Prior to entering broadcasting, he was associate editor of America, a weekly opinion journal published by American Jesuits. From 1981 to 1989, McLaughlin was Washington editor and author of the monthly political column, "From Washington Straight," for the National Review.
The McLaughlin Group premiered in 1982. The show features four political commentators, usually two conservatives and two liberals, with McLaughlin seated in the middle. The McLaughlin Group is most widely seen on CBS affiliates, and is taped at the studios of WUSA-TV in Washington, DC.
The McLaughlin Group is seen in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe and worldwide on American Forces Network and on the WORLDNET satellite service.
The McLaughlin Group is available in low-resolution video podcast form on the show's web site and on iTunes. Although the show is broadcast on PBS with no commercials, the podcast edition has commercial messages from the broadcast Sunday mornings on WUSA-TV.
McLaughlin is fond of making witty predictions based on current events, and of asking questions in interesting ways. One of the phrases he often uses is: His loud and forceful style of presentation has been parodied by comedians and other commentators, most notably Dana Carvey of Saturday Night Live. McLaughlin himself appeared as the Grim Reaper in an SNL sketch that parodied his show.
McLaughlin also hosts John McLaughlin's One On One, first telecast in 1984, and from 1989 through 1994, produced and hosted McLaughlin, a one-hour nightly talk show on CNBC.
McLaughlin has also appeared in films, including Dave, Mission Impossible, Independence Day and War, Inc.
On 23 August 1975, McLaughlin married Ann Dore, his former campaign manager. She served as Secretary of Labor under Ronald Reagan from 1987 until 1989. The couple divorced in 1992.
On 22 June 1997, McLaughlin married Cristina Clara Vidal McLaughlin. They said at the time they met in a bookstore in 1990. The marriage ended in divorce in 2010.
McLaughlin is a lifetime Republican. However, leading up to the 2004 presidential election, McLaughlin announced that he would be voting for Democratic Party candidate John Kerry. His political views in general are diversified and often differ from Republican Party positions depending on the issue in question.
In the 2009 movie Watchmen, John is portrayed in an early scene by Gary Houston, interviewing Pat Buchanan (played by James M. Connor) and Eleanor Clift (played by Mary Ann Burger) about the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
