Ten months ago, former Bush political strategist and perennial GOP superstar Karl Rove came to speak at Cornell. He will be returning to upstate New York next week, this time to Syracuse University, where he will again be speaking on pressing political issues.
At Cornell, the detail-oriented Rove shared his thoughts on the Republican presidential race, and on his opposition to the Obama administration. Here is an excerpt from the Insider’s coverage of Rove last year:
“This is the first election in modern times in which there is no clear frontrunner for the Republicans,” Rove pointed out. “They all have the same three challenges. What’s their narrative? Why shouldn’t it be Obama? Why should it be them?” People want to know, he said, “are you going to be able to bring us together at the end of this? They’re going to have to do something to convince people they’re up to the job.”
Since then, we have seen the rise and fall of Donald Trump, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, John Huntsman, and Rick Perry. Given the results of the most recent round of primaries, the race remains far from decided. Last year, Rove had a message for potential nominees – “People want to know: Are you going to be able to bring us together at the end of this?” Rove will surely have much more to say about the lack of a clear and convincing front-runner now that Super Tuesday is just around the corner.
While the security at last year’s Rove speech was extra-tight due to protesters and a history of threats against him, the rise of Occupy might mean his Syracuse speech is even more heavily picketed. Perhaps that explains why Occupy Syracuse is busing in protesters from NYC…
