He later held leadership positions in the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie and Morris Udall, and was political director for Sargent Shriver when he ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket in 1972. In 1968, Shields went to work for Robert F. Īfterwards, he went to Washington in 1965, where he became an aide to Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire. He was a lance corporal before he was discharged in 1962.
In the early 1960s, Shields served as an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps in Florida. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1959. Shields was born and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in an Irish Catholic family. For 17 years, Shields was moderator and panelist on CNN's Capital Gang. Shields was also a regular panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly public affairs show that was seen on both PBS and ABC until it ceased production in December 2013. Previous counterparts were the late William Safire, Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal, and David Gergen. His current on-screen counterpart is David Brooks of The New York Times. Since 1988, Shields has provided weekly political analysis and commentary for the PBS NewsHour. Mark Stephen Shields (born May 25, 1937) is an American political columnist and commentator. University of Notre Dame (B.A., Philosophy, 1959)
