So it is midnight, I’ve just spent my afternoon and evening with Gary, Karl Rove, and Mark Kennedy. Yeah I said Karl Rove.

Karl Rove has always been one of my heroes. Last year when Bush was in Blaine I was about 15 feet from him, and I couldn’t stop elbowing the person next to me and saying “That is Karl Rove!” Ah yeah, that was cooler to me than Bush and his speech.

Well, Wednesday, I came home to a message from the White House asking me to call them back if I wanted to be a part with a private bloggers meeting with Karl Rove. (gulp) I called back yesterday I called back, and made sure it was real. Sure enough.

So Captain Ed, Gary, Michael ‘MDE‘ Brodkorb and I got to spend an hour with Rove. (gulp) Yeah little old me who a year and a half ago was a no one. What stars aligned for me to be here?

So anyways. I show up like 5 minutes late, and luckily I could see that they hadn’t yet started. I came in and instantly, Chairman Carey introduced me and made me sit up front close to the action. As I was getting settled in, Rove noticed Brodkorb and Ed both had VAIO’s. He said something like that seems to be the laptop of choice. As I was opening up my case, I said I was gonna blow that.

I pulled out my trusty Powerbook, and Rove instantly said that he has the exact same model as I do. He went on to talk about how he fought for the campaign to allow each division to have a choice of what platform they used, PC or Mac, and that their software be universal. For some dumb reason I asked him if he won that argument.

So we were bonded instantly on this part. It is a Mac thing, you wouldn’t understand. I feel it should also be pointed out that I was the only one who actually got an internet connection. Ed, couldn’t. 2 minute wonder, Brodkorb’s battery was dead right off the bat. And Gary brought his hammer, chisel, and stone tablets to take notes with. Yep, little old slice o the market share Mac guy was the only one who liveblogged the meeting. (See that here at KvM)

Ed has a great write up on the specifics that probably makes much better sense than my chickenblogging notes/post, so you may want to check that out.

Just wow. Here I was. chatting with THE guy. The guy who was the architect of Bush being a 2 termer. Plus he has done so much more than that. He’s written the playbook for Republicans. Grassroots, volunteers, voter ID, and voter turnout. It isn’t that simple, but it is hard to lay it out as extensively as he did.

He knew on election night 04 at 9:00 PM that they had done it. He had a plan laid out to follow a hierarchy of Districts to track the results. Just when the White House staff had their dobbers down, and were trying to figure out how to remove all the “F”s from the keyboards, he walked into the room and said we did it. He tracked certain East Coast areas, and just that was enough for him to know they were gonna have a good night.

All I can say is wow! How’d this happen to me? I’ll be posting some more about the Kennedy event tomorrow on KvM. But for crying out loud. I was one of 7 invited, and 4 who attended a one hour sit down with one of, if not THE most powerful man in politics. So, ah, yeah. That kinda does make it all worth it. To be selected for this honor and privilege is … I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels.

Karl Rove. I spent an hour talking with Karl Rove. Man. Honestly, you have no idea how just … he’s a real person, a regular guy, who talks with you, not to you. Despite the celebrity of him, I felt so comfortable and at home. The only thing that was missing was the beer, I thought. It was the coolest thing I have ever done.

Thank you so much to everyone. Karl Rove. Ron Carey. Gina, Mark, John Seaton, and Gary. Yeah Gary, with out you and KvM. I would not have been there buddy. It is strange how it all works out sometimes in life. One week you think it is the pits, the next, a dream comes true.

I’m writing, but I am literally speechless right now.

Thank you again!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 22nd, 2006 at 12:39 am and is filed under Life, Minnesota, MN 6th - Bachmann, MN Campaigns, MN Governor, MN US Senate, National, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.