NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry poised to win
the Democratic presidential nomination-and polls showing his
"electability" the chief factor in winning him a majority of votes-how
should the Bush administration begin to mount its defense of the White
House in November?
A former high-ranking member of the Republican Party will be on
Vanderbilt’s campus to discuss Bush’s possible strategy for retaining
the presidency and what role the media will play in the 2004 election.
J.C. Watts, former four-term U.S. representative from Oklahoma, will
speak as part of Vanderbilt’s Impact Symposium on Monday, Feb. 16. His
lecture begins at 7 p.m. in Langford Auditorium on the University’s
campus. Tickets for the event are $10 for the general public and must
be purchased prior to the lecture at the Sarratt Student Center box
office or through any TicketMaster outlet.
Watts was elected to the U.S. Congress from the fourth district of
Oklahoma in 1994. In 1998, he was elected to serve as chairman of the
Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking Republican leadership
position in the House of Representatives. In this capacity, Watts
provided daily counsel to the Speaker of the House and participated in
bi-weekly meetings with the president.
Watts spoke at the 1996 Republican National Convention, gave the
Republican Party’s response to President Clinton’s 1997 State of the
Union Address, and was honorary co-chairman at the 2000 Republican
National Convention. He retired from Congress in 2002 and now serves as
chairman of the J.C. Watts Companies, which implements business
development, communications and public affairs strategies for national
and international corporations.
On Tuesday, Feb. 17, CNN political analysts Tucker Carlson and Paul
Begala will be on campus to discuss the media’s influence on
presidential politics in this age of instant polling, Internet chatter
and the 24-hour news cycle. Carlson and Begala are co-hosts of the
popular political debate program Crossfire, seen each weekday on CNN.
Carlson provides commentary "from the right," as he squares off against
Begala "from the left."
Their debate begins at 7 p.m. in Langford Auditorium. Tickets are
$10 for the general public and must be purchased prior to the lecture
at the Sarratt Student Center box office or through any TicketMaster
outlet.
In addition to his job at CNN, Carlson is a longtime newspaper and
magazine writer. His book, Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My
Adventures in Cable News, was published in 2003. Carlson is set to host
a half-hour prime time weekly series on PBS scheduled to begin airing
in June.
Begala was a counselor to President Clinton and one of the
administration’s principal public spokesmen. He is a partner with James
Carville in the political consulting firm Carville & Begala and
served as a senior strategist for the Clinton-Gore presidential
campaign in 1992. In addition to his duties at CNN, Begala is a
research professor of government and public policy at Georgetown
University.
For more information about Impact 2004, contact Sophie Moery at
430-5433. For more news about Vanderbilt, visit the News Service
homepage at www.vanderbilt.edu/News.
Media contact: Kara Furlong, (615) 322-NEWS
Kara.c.furlong@vanderbilt.edu