Photo by Joseph Allen
The Vice President’s domestic policy advisor puts her carefully honed legal and political skills to work in the battle for health care reform
The first time I met Terrell McSweeny she was a toy soldier in the Washington Ballet’s performance of Nutcracker at the Lisner Auditorium. I was a reporter for Channel 5 and had reluctantly agreed to interview her despite the fact that I considered children to be largely unresponsive in such situations. Ten-year-old McSweeny was self-possessed and articulate as she sat on the lip of the stage in her heavy makeup, her legs dangling, ignoring the camera.
Twenty-four years later we are sitting at Sesto Senso over plates of pasta, but now she is domestic policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden with the additional title of special assistant to President Obama. She is just as self-possessed and articulate as ever.
