Candy Crowley, a veteran CNN reporter and active Transcendental Meditation practitioner, will host one of the three TV debates during the US presidential elections. In the last 20 years, she will be the first woman to have been awarded this honour
As Candy Crowley steps on the stage on October 16, she will have reached what is undoubtedly the pinnacles of a political journalist’s career. To moderate the debate between two presidential hopefuls, Barack Obama (Democrat) and Mitt Romney (Republican), is a tremendous achievement. Only the best of the best are trusted with this task.
And she has done it against all odds. Candy Crowley is a woman on a playground traditionally dominated by men. Worse, she doesn’t look like a supermodel hot from the catwalk. In today’s aggressively high-tempo media, she also stands out as an exceptionally respectful listener. No fast-food media when she’s in charge. 
Yet Crowley, 63, has never been afraid of the odds. She knows that all the work, be it in journalism or elsewhere, starts with oneself. A vegetarian for the last 17 years and practicing Transcendental Meditation twice a day, she has learnt to keep her calm even under the fire of a live political tussle. In a recent interview to the Washington Post, she explained the help she gets from meditation:
“It’s a hard thing to describe, but I find that my thought is clearer. I still get mad. I still get upset. But I let it go more quickly.”
In just a few weeks’ time, Crowley will need her skills like never before. The fate of a whole country could be easily decided on TV screens. And the whole world will be watching.
Watch Candy Crowley speaking about Transcendental Meditation and the effect it has on veterans of war:
Video by The David Lynch Foundation
