Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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12/9/11: John Bolton ’70, ’74JD

By the staff | 2:09pm January 03 2012

The long list of official Republican presidential contenders includes zero Yale alumni. But one Yalie—John Bolton ’70, ’74JD—suddenly found his name in the mix this week. Newt Gingrich, the former US House speaker who has surged in the polls to challenge front-runner Mitt Romney, said that if elected, he would ask Bolton to be his secretary of state.

Under President George W. Bush ’68, Bolton served as ambassador to the United Nations—an organization he had harshly criticized—on a recess appointment, then resigned because he couldn’t win Senate confirmation. Gingrich’s announcement that he would name Bolton to the job now held by Hillary Rodham Clinton ’73JD (a Yale Law School contemporary of Bolton) won praise from conservative activist Gary Bauer and applause from the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Bolton, who flirted with a presidential run himself, did not comment.

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