Former CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.Dan Lothian, 51, is a dashing fellow.
He is the kind of golden-throated, erudite guy who tends to advance quickly in broadcast journalism - in Lothian's case all the way to Washington, D.C., as a former White House correspondent for CNN.
One of Lothian's favorite pieces of clothing is a trench coat that he bought at a Salvation Army thrift store here in Chattanooga when he was a not-so-affluent college student at Tennessee Temple University back in the 1980s.
Mark KennedyThere's something about doing stand-ups in front of the White House in a second-hand, $5 topcoat that helped keep Lothian grounded.
"I've had it so long, it's part of who I am," said Lothian, who lives in a Boston suburb now but travels to Chattanooga regularly to fulfill a two-year stint as a visiting lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Lothian, now a media consultant and investor, attended college here in the early 1980s and returned later in the decade to work at WDEF-TV. He eventually made stops at television stations in Seattle and Boston before making the leap to NBC news and later CNN.
In 2008, he was promoted to White House correspondent at CNN and eventually traveled to more than 30 countries covering the Obama administration. He also reported on the 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential races.
On a visit to Chattanooga last week - "I almost feel like I'm from here," he injects - Lothian stopped by the Times Free Press newsroom to give us his take on the unfolding presidential primaries.
For the record, if he had to pick today, Lothian thinks Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio are the most likely future nominees of their respective parties.
Here are his quick takes on some of the primary candidates.
First the GOP:
* Donald Trump. "Watching what Donald Trump has done to draw attention to the field is pretty amazing. I've been covering politics a long time, and I've never seen early GOP debates get this kind of attention. I think it's a direct result of Trump being in the race. It's all about blending politics and entertainment."
" My opinion is that Trump is not going to remain in the race all the way to the end. I don't see him giving up the flexible lifestyle he has now."
Dan Lothian speaks at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2014.* Dr. Ben Carson. "I'm not so sure he wanted to run. I think, in many ways, Dr. Ben Carson was drafted. There was a grassroots infrastructure that was put together to recruit him.
"My sense is that he wants this [to be president] now. What I find fascinating is that all the years that I was covering government, experience was at the top of the list of qualifications. Now, it's a liability."
* Jeb Bush. "I'm shocked [at his relatively low polling numbers]. If you had asked me many months ago who the nominees would be, I would have said [Hillary] Clinton and [Jeb] Bush. He had the money, but he wasn't electric enough in the early debates. But I have a feeling we will see him again. I don't think he is gone."
* Sen. Marco Rubio. "I always thought it was Bush's [nomination] to lose, but if he did slide that Rubio would be the next man up. He is a safe, establishment candidate if Bush isn't there. The Republican establishment is nervous about Trump and Carson. They hope someone like Rubio is a safe fall-back pick."
On the Democratic side:
* Hillary Clinton. "You never know with Mrs. Clinton, whether there is something out there looming. Is there something else going to come up to undercut her? In some weird twist, will some other Democrat have to ride to the rescue? The way it appears now, she won't have a lot of competition."
* Bernie Sanders. "The power of social media can create strong pockets of support. You can see someone [like Sanders] bubbling to the top."
So, if we get a Rubio vs. Clinton race, who will emerge as the 44th president of the United States?
"I think it's a close race," Lothian said, smiling.
He is still enough of a newsman to leave election predictions to full-time pundits.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/ mkennedycolumnist.