Karen Tumulty (born December 1, 1955) is a political columnist for The Washington Post.[2] Before joining the Post, Tumulty wrote for Time from October 1994 to April 2010. She was a Congressional Correspondent, as well as the National Political Correspondent based in
Washington D.C. for the magazine.[3]
Tumulty began her career in 1977 at the now-defunct San Antonio Light. Tumulty spent 14 years with the Los Angeles Times, covering the
US Congress, economics, business, energy, and general-assignment beats. While at the Times, she won the
Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism in 1982 for Large Newspapers,[8] and the
National Press Foundation's Edwin Hood Award for diplomatic correspondence in 1993.[5]
Tumulty joined Time in 1994. She covered Congress for two years, during which time she reported and wrote the magazine's 1995 "Man of the Year" profile of
Newt Gingrich.[5] In 1996, she became a White House Correspondent, writing major stories on President
Bill Clinton and
Hillary Clinton. She became the National Political Correspondent in 2001.
In the
2008 presidential campaign, Tumulty accused the campaign of Senator
John McCain of "playing the
race card" for a television ad criticizing the connections between Senator
Barack Obama and
Franklin Raines, the former CEO of
Fannie Mae. Tumulty wrote that the ad displayed "sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman."[9] The McCain campaign pointed out that they had also produced an ad criticizing the connections of Barack Obama to
Jim Johnson, another former Fannie Mae CEO who is white. According to the McCain campaign, Tumulty did not correct her post, but responded with "I grew up in Texas. I know what this stuff looks like." The McCain campaign accused Tumulty of "hysterical
liberal bias."[10]