Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Mustafa Al-ammar Karl Rove, SPEC's spring keynote speaker, shares his political views and know-how in an onstage conversation with Penn Political Science professor Donald Kettl and a packed Irvine Auditorium. [Click to enlarge]

Shortly after the 2004 presidential election, Republican political strategist Karl Rove found himself on the list of Barbara Walters' Top 10 Most Fascinating People. It has been a few years, but at Irvine Auditorium last night, Rove proved people are still fascinated by what he has to say.

College freshman Mark Pan noted that he was "torn between supporting a man I strongly disagree with … and attempting to gain a better understanding of his perspectives."

Pan ended up attending the event, as did over 1,200 other members of the Penn community. Rove, the architect of President Bush's two successful White House bids, spoke at the anticipated SPEC-sponsored event.

He was introduced as "a driving force in American politics" but was quick to remind the audience that this had not always been the case. Rove characterized his first political campaign with George W. Bush in Texas as a "one-car caravan."

These earlier travels were juxtaposed with Rove's trip on Air Force One the morning of Sept. 11. After receiving word of the terrorist attacks, Bush and his staff got in the air "as fast as a 747 could." They then traveled to a command center with a screen, "floor to ceiling, displaying the world."

The discussion then quickly turned to the 2008 election. When asked what advice he had for Sen. John McCain, Rove replied that McCain needs to "reintroduce himself" by focusing on the people and places that have shaped his character.

Penn Political Science professor Donald Kettl, who moderated the event, quoted presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama as saying that he wanted to end "Karl Rove politics," which lead Rove to recount a confrontation the two had on the back steps of the West Wing. According to Rove, Obama's book allegedly attributes the quotation "we are a Christian nation" to him, which Rove denies ever saying.

Rove went on to read a series of quotations making the case that Iraq likely possessed weapons of mass destruction. He then revealed that he had just quoted Al Gore, John Kerry and Bill Clinton. This riled an audience already polarized merely by Rove's presence.

Absent from the White House since August, Rove used the opportunity to defend the Bush administration's foreign policy. America, Rove said, fights "not for the purpose of conquest but for the purpose of freedom."

As the discussion drew to a close, Rove advised the crowd, "If you ever get a chance to work in the White House, do it."

Certainly, this is one piece of advice McCain, too, would not mind taking.

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