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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, October 11, 2012

Good politics, bad politics: a discussion with Robert Gibbs and Karl Rove

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 11, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Less than three weeks before the Nov. 6 election, a pair of national political heavyweights will face off in front of an Indiana University audience as part of the College of Arts and Sciences' Themester 2012 "Good Behavior, Bad Behavior."

Robert Gibbs and Karl Rove will share their views of good and bad behavior in politics at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at the IU Auditorium. Gibbs is a former White House press secretary and current senior advisor to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign; Rove was senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush and is a political analyst and Fox News and The Wall Street Journal contributor.

The dual lecture, presented by the Indiana Memorial Union Board and Themester, is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. They are available at the IU Auditorium Box Office.

Gibbs has been an adviser and strategist to President Obama from the early days of Obama's 2004 Senate race to his sweep to the White House. He served as White House press secretary, presiding over daily press briefings at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He can speak with great authority and accuracy from an insider's perspective on issues that have crossed the president's desk. His leadership of Obama's campaigns makes him a valuable commentator on the upcoming 2012 elections.

About Rove, author and columnist Michael Barone wrote that "no presidential appointee has ever had such a strong influence on politics and policy, and none is likely to do so again anytime soon." Rove was ranked No. 1 on the London Telegraph's 50 Most Influential Political Pundits in America list and New York Magazine's Most Popular Political Pundit Index. As a Fox News contributor, Rove provides a "genuine feel of inside knowledge," says David Zurawik, a Baltimore Sun television critic.

Additional sponsors of the event include the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Kelley School of Business and the School of Journalism.

The Indiana University Memorial Union Board is the largest programming body on the Bloomington campus. The board, which also serves as the governing body of the Indiana Memorial Union, strives to organize a diverse range of events and activities around which students may come together. The organization plans concerts, lectures, debates, musicals and more.

Themester 2012 explores the meanings of good behavior and bad behavior in all senses -- aesthetic, ethical, adaptive, useful, essential, etc. -- applied to the realms of the living and non-living. Its discussions encompass moral philosophy, behavioral biology, the social sciences, mathematics, law, material science, cosmology, the literary, visual and dramatic arts, and more. All contribute to an understanding of the possibilities and limits of telling good from bad and behaving accordingly.

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