Karl Rove on The Hugh Hewitt Show

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Show:

Hugh Hewitt

Monday, February 16, 2015

 

Karl Rove joined me on my Presidents’ Day broadcast, and most of our time was spent looking forward to Hillary’s 2016 campaign:

 

Audio

 

Transcript at Link

 

 

(Snip)

 

HH: All right, last question, it’s a two-parter, Karl Rove. Can she be beaten by a Republican? And when will the superPACs begin to hammer her as the Democrats hammered Romney in 2012? How early will they open up on her with the big guns in media and social media, etc?

 

KR: Let me take the second part of that first. They will begin to open up, or they should begin to open up when she becomes a candidate and not before, because most of the American people, the people that are going to have to be reached, are people who are paying not much attention to politics, and will not pay a lot of attention to politics until next year. But once she becomes a candidate, they will begin to pay more attention to her, and to things that are being said about her. Having made that point, though, I’d say this. She’s not a federal office holder. So they’re going to all have to go out and raise 527 money in order to attack her. That’s going to be hard in 2015, because a lot of the people who are willing to write checks to superPACs are going to be more interested in writing checks to the superPAC of their favorite candidate for president for the Republican presidential nomination. The first question, though, that you asked is the important one – can we beat her. And the answer is yes. However, here’s the big question mark for Republicans. Will they be able to articulate and optimistic and hopeful conservative vision for the future of the country that causes people to say you know what, I know what you’re running for. We’re really good at knocking around Obama. And there’s going to be a role for doing that. We’re going to be really good about knocking around Hillary. And there’s a role for that. But at the end of the day, simply being the best person to knock around Obama, or to knock around Hillary, is going to be insufficient to either win the nomination, or more importantly, to win the general election. They’re going to, you know, look, Ronald Reagan spent some time in 1980 kicking around Jimmy Carter. But he spent an inordinate amount of time sharing a vision of what he thought America’s promise and possibility was. And he talked about it, and sometimes in very specific fashion. You and I both remember it, Kemp-Roth. He was out there talking about supply side economics in 1980, as well as kicking around Jimmy Carter for presiding over an economic debacle. That’s an important lesson for us. We win when we have an optimistic and positive conservative agenda that causes people to say I know what you’re going to do. We can attack them, but that serves as an entry point to discuss our values and views, and to draw people to us, not simply push them away from the opposition.

 

HH: 30 seconds, Karl Rove, is there anyone who’s done that better thus far than anyone else in the Republican field?

 

KR: No, and you know, we’re starting to see some of that. I think Scott Walker gave a great speech in Iowa. I think Marco Rubio has delivered over the last two years seven very substantive and meaty speeches. Jeb Bush is one of the smartest people, if not the smartest guy on our side. There are others who have contributed to this debate in very positive ways. But I think it is premature for us to reach a conclusion as to who can get that job done. But I think that’s what all the Republicans that I talk to are waiting to see. Those that haven’t committed to somebody, they’re specifically sitting on the sidelines because they want to see these people strut their stuff and prove that they’ve got what it takes to win in 2016. Our country cannot afford to have four more years of Barack Obama, a third term, which is exactly what Hillary Clinton or even worse, Elizabeth Warren, would represent.

 

(Snip)

[Cyber_Liberty]

I'm waiting to see who Karl wants, so I can run in the opposite direction as fast as I can.

[Valin]

I'm waiting to see who Karl wants, so I can run in the opposite direction as fast as I can.

 

Yes, because as all true blue right thinking people know Karl Rove is the anti-christ.

[Cyber_Liberty]

Naw, he's just an indicator of where "the smart money" is going, and with the GOP lately the money's been not-so-smart. I don't think he's evil or anything, he just doesn't have the same goals we do. He proved over the last two Presidential campaigns he doesn't like conservatives.