Editor's note: Karl Rove has been vilified by some, but he is unquestionably recognized -- on both sides of the political aisle -- as one of the most powerful players in Washington today. A former journalism professor and longtime political strategist, Rove played a key role in the Bush-Cheney 2000 Presidential campaign and continues to serve the president today. This Tuesday, Salem Communications’ nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt had a chat with Rove. This is part two of a transcript of that interview for Crosswalk.com readers. (Part One can be found here)
HEWITT: As you study the data, has the reality of (the Iraq) war had a fundamental impact on American politics that is not showing up (in) the polls -- in terms of…changing the way that people vote?
ROVE: I think it probably has. I was struck last night -- and I hate to make to make too much of polls, and I hate to make too much of anecdotes -- when those three powerful women were talking about their connection to 9/11 and they panned across the crowd, I noticed that a lot of people, particularly a lot of women, were clearly moved by emotion. I think this idea of soccer moms -- moms who are concerned about what kind of world their children and grandchildren are going to live in -- is going to reshape American politics.
HEWITT: Karl Rove, a few practical questions in our time left here. Do you read the blogs?
ROVE: I sometimes do. I don’t have enough time -- I ‘m rushing to hither and yon way too much. But I have a fellow on my staff who is very attentive to the blogs and pulls off interesting items for me to read.
HEWITT: Has the new information technology changed the pace in which you have to run a campaign?
ROVE: Oh, huge, hugely so. It’s also, ironically enough, made campaigns in a way very old-fashioned too, because it has given campaigns the ability to put into the hands of individual supporters data that helps organize the campaign, persuade people and mobilize people to register and then turn them out. It’s like my wife; she’s gotten on the Bush campaign, (where) we’ve got a thing called the Virtual Precinct. It’s a way to basically organize your own precinct of people all around the country. So my sister and brother-in-law in Reno, and my brother in Reno, and my brother in Denver, my sister in Denver, my nieces in Cheyenne and Denver area, wife’s cousin in Hattiesburg, and her aunt in Hattiesburg, her cousin who’s at Fort Brag, her sister whose in Austin…they’re all part of our virtual precinct, and my wife’s job is to use these tools on the webpage of the Bush campaign to help make certain that she keeps in touch with all these people, makes certain that they are all registered, and gets them the right forms to request a ballot or registration form if they are not. It is really pretty amazing how it has helped reinvigorate the grass roots of the Republican party.
HEWITT: That’s remarkable. Let’s look at the debates in the fall...Have you folks agreed to that false dichotomy of a debate on domestic issues and a debate on international…?
ROVE: …We have not yet announced our debate negotiating team, and we’ll deal with those issues in public after we name them.
HEWITT: Alright. Some particular demographics. Michael Barone yesterday in conversation said that the President is behind where Reagan was in ’84 and Clinton was in ’96 in the 18-34 demographic. Agree or disagree, and how do you strengthen the connection with that demographic?
ROVE: I think that’s probably accurate and, of course, and…we’re ahead in other demographics, but that is one that we want to work on very much. We’re not that much behind where either one were in ’84 or ’96, but I would remind you that both of them went on to pretty convincing victories. Clinton, I think, had a 7 or 8 point lead, and 1984 was approaching a 10 or 11 point lead. So, you know, we’re in a much more closely fought election, but we’re working very hard on the younger voter.
