Well Friday was quite an experience for me. I was able to participate in a round table discussion with Karl Rove and have my picture taken with him. None of this would have possible for me without my boss's generous contribution of $500.00 to the GOP "Get Out the Vote" effort. So I feel very fortunate as I do not have this type of money. When I get the picture back from the GOP picture taker, I will need help in posting it on Free Republic since I don't know how to post pictures if anyone is interested.
My first impression of him was that he looked a lot healthier and thinner than what TV does to him. He is very energetic and easy to talk to. He is like a walking encyclopedia. He remember facts and figures like there is no tomorrow. I hope that he is training someone younger to take over his place because he will be sorely missed by the GOP when he decides to retire.
Karl spoke about the elections of course and is very optimistic that the GOP will hold the Senate and House. I will not mention what states he feels are up in the air on this forum since we have some opponents who would love this information. If you are interested to know, please send me an email and I will go from there. Since I am pretty much a lurker, I will know if you are a regular GOP supporter or not.
He did mention that the grass roots efforts is higher with the elections this year than that of 2004. Go figure, not what the MSM is reporting at all or they just don't understand the "get out the vote" efforts by the GOP.
He also mentioned that in the 2004 elections the GOP was actually outspent by the Democrats by $120 million dollars. I was stunned by that figure and then to win the election was just icing on the cake.
Someone asked about the President and how he is doing. Karl told us he is a very disciplined individual. At night when he goes to his private residence he is given about 75 pages of information for meetings the next day. He is amazed at how he absorbs the information on such short notice and comes to the table with hard questions and his ability to remember names and situations when talking with people. The schedule he keeps is grueling and some in the room referenced the energizer bunny. I don't think everyday Americans really understand the demands on an individual when they are President; I surely learned more today about life in the White House.
Karl told us that he almost didn't take the job as White House advisor as he talked to others that held the job previously. Others told him that a lot of backstabbing and gossiping went on and when he talked to the President about whether or not he was going to take this job, they talked about this. President Bush was adamant that this was not going to happen during his White House term and Karl said he is amazed at how the people in the White House get along and work together because none of the backstabbing and gossiping happens.
Karl also said that he gets pretty much the same national security reports as the President without the classified information and said that it would make your stomach turn if you would read what he gets to read. Sobering thoughts needless to say.
Someone in the room asked him if he goes on the internet and though his response did not mention any specific websites, he does use the Internet and who knows he may be a regular among us. He actually has a staff that blogs and visits websites regularly, hopefully they see us out here in cyperspace and realize that we love this President.
I could go on and on but I think you get most of the picture -
Fun stuff
Deb