Karl Rove Said...

Husband attended a pre-conference dinner last night that featured a discussion between James Carville and Karl Rove. He told me that it was fascinating in many ways, including Carville's multi-tasking (whenever Rove spoke, Carville began reading some sort of bound report that he had with him, probably billing the client for his work) and Rove's tautological arguments based on nothing. Saying things quickly, forcefully, and with anger is how he convinces people that he's right, despite the utter lack of facts in his presentation. Usually this works well because he speaks to audiences of acolytes.

Possibly the most horrifying statement he made last night, in Husband's opinion, was when he was asked if the Bradly effect was in play in the presidential election. "Well," he replied, "you never really know if people are going to vote or a black or not."

The woman in the audience who later asked Carville if "Obama is a socialist" probably approved of that. The one person of color, who was at Husband's table, was visibly offended. The people who clapped when Carville said that the porter who carried Rove's bag to his hotel room deserved more of a tax cut than any of the dinner guests also were disturbed.

Incidentally, he also insisted that all economic research that comes from Princeton University - which is probably the top university in the United States - is "bullshit, utter bullshit." Facts, it seems, are useless unless they are manufactured by the GOP machine as "facts."

It makes me sick.