Karl Rove: In Touch with the Kids (in 1972)

Back in July, I pointed to a YouTube video of an NBC Nightly News broadcast from July 4, 1972. Here’s another one, found via Boing Boing, featuring a young Karl Rove in his role in the Young Republicans as the “GOP College Director”. Then-reporter “Gunga Dan” Rather describes Rove’s group in a voice-over as “an operation aimed at embarrassing pundits who say that Nixon doesn’t appeal to youth.”

The voice is the same, but this is a skinnier Rove, sporting a look that might have been considered a little “square” among some of his college peers in 1972, but would give him indie rocker cred today:

Rove interviews quite well, and you can see the future Republican strategist in the young fella in the video, talking about how to reach a younger audience.

Here’s an interesting still from the piece: those are Karl Rove’s hands holding the “Generation Of Peace” bumper sticker, which highlights the first letters in each word. For those of you not familiar with American politics, “GOP” — short for “Grand Old Party” — is a nickname for the Republican Party, in the same way that word “Tory” is often used to refer to the Conservative Party in Canada and the UK.

It’s interesting, because only a few years prior to this newscast, the use of the word “peace” was considered to be controversial. I remember reading in The Pop Sixties: A Personal and Irreverent Guide that the “goodbye” segment of an episode of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was cut because Tommy Smothers said “Please talk peace”. I get the feeling that these bumper stickers must’ve raised a few eyebrows in the upper echelons of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

As for Rove today, does he still know how to reach the kids through their culture? Watch this video of Washington’s latest hip-hop sensation: “MC Rove” at this year’s Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner: