Plouffe, Rove Spar in California Video coming up on MSNBC

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/Plouffe_Rove_Spar_in_California.html

Plouffe, Rove Spar in California

David Plouffe and Karl Rove are on stage at the Panetta Institute in Monerey, California at the moment, in a conversation that lacks the bonhomie you often see at these things.

Rove has been pressing his argument that Obama is failing to fulfill his bipartisan promise in Congress and in the polls.

"This is like getting interview lessons from Sarah Palin," Plouffe shot back.

One thing they agreed on: They both deplore the media, with Plouffe seeing too much conflict and Rove concerned with a lack of substance.

There was, though, a good deal of substance in the debate -- though minus, as Jonathan Martin notes, fact-checking emails from the campaigns. Both Plouffe and Rove claimed their bosses had passed history's largest middle-class tax cut (perhaps a fuzzy number, depending on where you draw the line), and sparring on whether a health-care plan on the model of that used by members of Congress represents a "government-run" healthcare, something -- Rove pointed out -- Obama denounced in a campaign ad as "extreme."

UPDATE: In eight years, just maybe, David Plouffe will be ready to join the congenial, bipartisan circuit of semi-retired campaign hands and political pundits. He sure isn't there right now, and refused to play along with Rove's friendly plug of both men's forthcoming books.

"But mine will be in the non-fiction section," Plouffe interjected, prompting Rove to take a shot of his own: "His will be the one with lots of pictures in it and it comes with a little box of crayons so you can do it yourself."

Rove didn't lack for punchiness either. He attacked the moderator, CNN's Frank Sesno, for bias, and said he opposed the appointment of Leon Panetta to head the CIA -- at the Panetta institute.

[ananda]

1. Rove is a criminal ...

So this shows how low our country has sunk
when people actually give him a platform
and listen to him speak.. and even pay a
lot of money for it sometimes.

I sigh for a return to the rule of law
and real values in America.

[madfloridian]

2. The Panetta Institute should not have given Rove a platform.

Panetta has an important position, and in that position he should not be rewarding Rove with such a platform.