Rove vs Dean Debate

Someone tipped me off that Karl Rove and Howard Dean were debating at DePauw University. I watched it on a live stream.

Howard's opening remarks were much better than Karl's about generational civic engagement.

(photo courtesy of DePauw U)

"Our generation is a partisan generation," Gov. Dean declared. "People have talked about the culture wars. We've spent a lot of time demonizing each other's side, that makes it very difficult. One of the extraordinary things about this new young generation is they're sick of it. The question I get most often from young people is, 'When can you guys stop fighting about this stuff you've been fighting about for 30 years and get something done about the things you can agree on?' And I think it's going to have to wait until this generation is fully empowered for that to happen."

Dean reminded them that as they voted more in 2008 than other generations in decades, it was up to them to continue the engagement.

Rove made a terrible joke about a mouse in the University President's pool, which made me realize that Rove was initially uncomfortable, but then he got into how important it was to get involved with the community, whether it is business development that creates jobs, volunteer work, or serving on a city commission. I did like that part of his opening remarks.

There were times I was surprised how much they agreed upon when it came to immigration issues, Afghanistan and to a certain extent border security. However when it came to the CIA and investigations about national security, Rove denied that Bush's administration ever tortured any one, but the advanced techniques (meaning waterboarding) were approved by the CIA, and he claimed that the ones being interrogated were told ahead they would not be killed and at that a doctor was always available. Hmm...have a little feeling Rove was acting like Cheney and not telling all of the truth there.

When it came to civil discourse, Rove went on and on about the First Amendment. Dean didn't quibble much here especially at town halls, as he said the one he attended with Jim Moran a few weeks ago was raucous, but fine with him. Rove went off on a rant about Scott Simon's interview recently of a novelist who wrote about having lunch somewhere and Rove (fictionally) was there. The writer said something about grabbing a knife, but valor got the best of her. Simon laughed at the humor. Rove apparently wrote NPR to tell thing it wasn't very funny to him. Dean's debuttal was about Lou Dobbs' remark about him "[H]e's a bloodsucking leftist -- I mean, you gotta put a stake through his heart to stop this guy". Rove did invoke a smile from Dean when he said "Never trust CNN."

Rove's wingnutty kicked in full force when it came to health care reform. He said he didn't want a government bureacrat making decisions about his health care. He repeated John McCain's idea of tax credits, etc. Dean smacked Rove pretty good, saying that he was tired of private insurance coming between him (as a doctor) and the patient. He also wanted insurance where you cannot take it away from you, it is called Medicare.

Here's the video clip:

Howard Dean on health care reform

Overall, I thought it was a lively debate, and while Rove was more snarky than Dean overall, I liked it.

To read more and see more video clips, go here.

Dean debates Gingrich on MTP on Sunday. That's more controlled by a Republican hack, but Dean can handle him any day of the week.