Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, will speak at the University of Massachusetts [1] on Tuesday about America’s future and moving forward, as well as the future of the Republican Party.
Rove is often considered to have been “The Architect” of the Republican presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. He was also called “the greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation” by The Weekly Standard.
The UMass Republican Club is sponsoring Rove’s speech and admission is free and open to the public. [2] A question and answer session will take place following Rove’s speech for interested audience members.[3] .
“He will be speaking about the GOP moving forward as well as America’s future,” David Kaufman, president of the Republican Club, said in an email interview. “He will probably touch upon the idea of the GOP seeming ‘out of touch,’ as well as the goal of the PAC’s [sic] and foundations he has started to combat radical conservatives being pushed through Senate and Congressional primaries.”
The American Friends Service Committee is planning a protest of Rove’s speech beginning at 6 p.m. on the steps of the Student Union, which Kaufman said that he expected. The slogan for the committee’s protest is, “Let’s give Mr. Rove the greeting that he has earned!”
“The head of the protests and I have been exchanging email, though he cannot seem to understand the ignorance the protest symbolizes,” Kaufman added.
Rove’s speech will take place at 8 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom The doors will open at 7:30 in order to properly enforce security to the event.
Patrick Hoff contributed to this report.
Nikki Grossfeld can be reached at [email protected].
ccd • Apr 10, 2013 at 6:32 pm
Let’s not forget the irony of the mostly republican members of the SGA droning on about the fact that the SATF is going insolvent and all the need to cut back on student club spending, and then giving themselves a huge cut of that budget to bring 1 or 2 irrelevant speakers to campus each year and doing absolutely nothing for students otherwise.
ccd • Apr 10, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Courage and leadership of paying a political hack $15,000 with student money and then turning around and telling other student clubs “oh sorry, we aren’t going to give you $500 for your trip to your sport competition” while sitting in the ways and means committee? Wow so brave.
Diversity of ideas is great as long as the ideas are good. We have 30 years of falling wages, reduced social mobility, and increased poverty thanks to this tired old 80s conservative neoliberal schlock that they try to paint as somehow “traditional American values.” Let it die with Thatcher and move on shall we?
David Lloyd • Apr 9, 2013 at 4:44 pm
Congratulations to the College Republicans for bringing an alternative voice onto the campus. Diversity of thought and ideas is what a college campus is supposed to celebrate. It is refreshing to have a prominent national figure, who is not a predictable rubber stamp liberal, speak on the future of this country. Even if the majority of the Pioneer Valley community has a leftist perspective, they should show some class and respect Karl Rove’s freedom to articulate his view. If people want to ask tough questions in an articulate and respectable manner, they should do so. However, the UMass campus should not tolerate disruptions by intolerant leftists who lack the brain power to have an intellectual discourse with conservatives who do not follow the PC line. Thanks to David Kaufman, and his fellow organizers, for showing some courage and leadership.
ccd • Apr 9, 2013 at 4:20 pm
I don’t really understand how he can be “the greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation” unless the person that wrote that was drunk, brainwashed, or both. He didn’t even win the 2000 election and they essentially had to steal it in court. The second election in 2004 Bush also barely won thanks to the smearing of Kerry (sadly, this was when I was a mindless college republican and campaigned for Bush like a good little drone). Then, Rove makes his own superpac, takes in untold millions, and has what to show for it? A 5-10% success rate maybe? I think “the most over-rated political mind of his generation and probably of any generation” would be a better title for him.
It’s so crooked. Now that he can’t get a job as a political strategist for anything important, he has to take what opportunities he can to go on TV shows or do speaking engagements. Hey UMASS students. It looks like $15,000 of your Student Activities money is going to fund Rove’s political retirement. All so he can come to UMASS and give a speech about how republicans need to trick dark-colored people into voting for them(that was pretty much the content of his previous speech in CA). Maybe you shouldn’t let a disproportionate amount of college republicans win seats in the SGA and sit themselves on the board of Ways and Means which gives out the money to RSOs each year. I think they gave themselves $25,000 this year. That’s several times the budget of the college democrats and what most other RSOs get. Furthermore, other RSOs are usually forced to come up with all sorts of revenue-generating schemes (selling merchandise, charging for attendance to events, collecting dues) if they want to request anything over $2000. When is the last time the Republican club has been only given half of what they want and told they need to raise the rest themselves? Never.
Wake up people they are gaming the system and siphoning your student activities dollars.
N. • Apr 9, 2013 at 1:21 pm
“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans – unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.” -Karl Rove
um, WHO’s ignorant?