Dole Institute to host post-election conference / LJWorld.com

Archive for Tuesday, December 2, 2008

‘Brightest people’ involved in presidential election to discuss political strategies

December 2, 2008

Prominent Democrats, Republicans and others invested in the 2008 presidential election will converge on the Dole Institute this week to analyze the results.

Representatives from several major campaigns and media outlets will attempt to deconstruct the major decisions of the campaign, said Bill Lacy, Dole Institute director.

The two-day event, the institute’s 2008 Post-Election Conference, is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. It marks the second such conference for the institute, which also held a similar event following the 2006 midterm elections.

“We wanted to basically get a group of the brightest people involved in the election to talk about why the critical decisions were made,” Lacy said.

The conference will consist of four panel discussions — one each devoted to the Republican and Democratic primary contests and two devoted to the general presidential election.

Invitees scheduled to appear include Steve Hildebrand and Christian Ferry, deputy campaign managers for both Barack Obama and John McCain, respectively, along with representatives from the presidential campaigns of John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton.

Also appearing will be representatives from traditional media outlets — including New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney and NBC political correspondent Kelly O’Donnell — alongside members of newer political media forms.

Nate Silver, creator of the Electoral College projection Web site FiveThirtyEight.com, and David Kurtz, managing editor of the political blog Talking Points Memo, are also scheduled to appear.

“We’re very pleased with the quality of the guests,” Lacy said.

The panels will address an audience of various university faculty members, students and friends of the institute, Lacy said. A limited number of available spots for members of the public have been claimed, Lacy said.