2008 Woodie Awards
Another side of Karl Rove
Kelsey Beltramea - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: Metro
Before his formal UI appearance began on Sunday, Karl Rove jovially took his seat on stage filled with student media members who were anxious to get the political expert's backstory and take on the current presidential-nomination race.
The Student Video Productions-sponsored forum in front of members of the College Republicans offered a different perspective of a man who admits his status as controversial figure in politics.
But he wasn't always that way.
Rove vocally supported Richard Nixon at the age of 9, but the event that mostly shaped his professional life resulted when his high-school teacher - "a fussy little guy with a bow tie" - told him as a junior that everyone else would be able achieve an "A for satisfactory completion of the course work," but Rove had to get involved in a political campaign.
"I'd always been interested in politics and government, but it was just the little kick I needed," he said.
He has since been lauded as a campaign expert by people in both parties. More recently, though, his highly successful "Rovian politics" tactics have been assailed by Democratic candidates.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has accused Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois of taking a move from Rove's playbook, and Obama frequently claims he would end Rove-style politics.
"I'm filling a copyright infringement lawsuit against both of them asking for damages," Rove joked. "But you know, if you're running in a Democratic primary, you need a bogeyman, and I'm it."
He said Democratic Party ideology makes candidates feel obligated to pick out something they can demonize and criticize, and they choose him.
Rove also criticized the U.S. political system for its intensely long presidential-selection process. Candidates spend too much time in aluminum tubes: either a van or an airplane, he said.
"We spend two years running these people into the ground, and then say, 'Raise your right hand and repeat after me,' and they're dog-tired."
The Student Video Productions-sponsored forum in front of members of the College Republicans offered a different perspective of a man who admits his status as controversial figure in politics.
But he wasn't always that way.
Rove vocally supported Richard Nixon at the age of 9, but the event that mostly shaped his professional life resulted when his high-school teacher - "a fussy little guy with a bow tie" - told him as a junior that everyone else would be able achieve an "A for satisfactory completion of the course work," but Rove had to get involved in a political campaign.
"I'd always been interested in politics and government, but it was just the little kick I needed," he said.
He has since been lauded as a campaign expert by people in both parties. More recently, though, his highly successful "Rovian politics" tactics have been assailed by Democratic candidates.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has accused Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois of taking a move from Rove's playbook, and Obama frequently claims he would end Rove-style politics.
"I'm filling a copyright infringement lawsuit against both of them asking for damages," Rove joked. "But you know, if you're running in a Democratic primary, you need a bogeyman, and I'm it."
He said Democratic Party ideology makes candidates feel obligated to pick out something they can demonize and criticize, and they choose him.
Rove also criticized the U.S. political system for its intensely long presidential-selection process. Candidates spend too much time in aluminum tubes: either a van or an airplane, he said.
"We spend two years running these people into the ground, and then say, 'Raise your right hand and repeat after me,' and they're dog-tired."
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