John Phillips Avlon is senior columnist for Newsweek and the Daily Beast as well as a CNN contributor. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics and Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. President Bill Clinton said that the book Wingnuts, "offers a clear and comprehensive review of the forces on the outer edges of the political spectrum that shape and distort our political debate.