Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Karl Rove: Health care an opening for conservative comeback

Karl Rove speech

Leila Navidi

Karl Rove delivers the keynote address during the Nevada Policy Research Institute’s 18th Anniversary Celebration at the Venetian on Wednesday.

Karl Rove speech

Karl Rove receives a gift from Nevada Policy Research Chairman Ranson Webster after Rove delivered the keynote address during the Nevada Policy Research Institute's 18th Anniversary Celebration at the Venetian on Wednesday. Launch slideshow »

Former White House adviser Karl Rove says President Barack Obama’s health care plan has provided conservatives with an opening for a political comeback — but that Republicans need to offer an appealing alternative to capitalize on the opportunity.

“When it comes to health care, it’s fine for us to be beating up on ‘Obamacare,’” Rove said. “But we have to offer a positive prescription that makes sense for ordinary people.”

The comments came at a fundraiser dinner at the Venetian Wednesday night for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank.

Rove, the architect of President George W. Bush’s campaigns and Republicans’ congressional majority, said health care reform had galvanized conservatives in a country that remains center-right, despite the election of Obama and a Democratically-controlled Congress.

Rove said Obama won the presidency because he campaigned as a centrist, only to take office and govern as a liberal. The crowd applauded the critique, part of a red-meat speech designed to appeal to the conservative base. One woman shouted, “He’s a liar,” referring to Obama. The comment recalled U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during the president’s address to a joint session of Congress this month.

In an hour-long speech, Rove invoked Ronald Reagan and said conservatives should “draw on our timeless principles and apply them to new circumstances.”

Criticizing the stimulus package, Rove said the administration should have instead awarded “healthy, dramatic tax cuts” to individuals and small businesses. On health care, he said there was “no gigantic demand for the kind of radical change (Obama’s) promising.” He proposed tax credits, health savings accounts and interstate competition in the health insurance market.

He encouraged conservatives to recruit and support quality candidates in next year’s elections.

Asked for his pick for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, Rove demurred. “I’m not going there,” he said. “Anybody that wants the nomination in 2012 better show they deserve it by going out and working for it in 2010.”

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