SMU Tate Series to feature two political legends May 2

DALLAS (SMU) – Veteran journalist Jim Lehrer will moderate a conversation between James Carville, the Democratic strategist who led Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign; and Karl Rove, the GOP consultant behind George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential victories, at The Ebby Halliday Companies Lecture of the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series at SMU Monday, May 2.

Lehrer, Carville and Rove will answer questions at the Turner Construction/Wells Fargo Tate Student Forum at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom, 3140 Dyer St. The student forum is a lively question-and-answer session with Tate speakers for area high school students, SMU students, faculty and staff.

The Ebby Halliday Companies Lecture will begin at 8 p.m. Monday at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium, 6405 Boaz Lane. The event is sold-out.

SMU students are eligible for free admission to Tate Lectures. Student tickets are distributed in the basement of McFarlin Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. on the evening of the lecture. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis and students must show a valid SMU ID to claim a ticket.

JAMES CARVILLE is a Democratic political consultant who led Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign. He previously managed several gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns. Recently, he has moved beyond domestic politics to manage political campaigns in more than 20 countries around the world.

Carville is the author or co-author of several books, including the bestseller It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! co-authored with Stan Greenberg, and two joint memoirs with his wife, Republican consultant Mary Matalin. Carville and Greenberg founded Democracy Corps, an independent nonprofit polling organization dedicated to making government more responsive to the American people. Carville appears on news networks worldwide and is a columnist for The Hill newspaper, which publishes daily when Congress is in session.

Carville earned both undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University, and he currently is a member of the political science faculty at Tulane University. He and Matalin live in New Orleans.

KARL ROVE is a Republican political strategist known as the architect of George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. He served as Senior Advisor to President Bush from 2000–07 and as Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–07.

Previously, Rove was president of Karl Rove & Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, nonpartisan causes and nonprofit groups. His clients included more than 75 U.S. Senate, congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states.

Today Rove writes a weekly op-ed for The Wall Street Journal and appears frequently on Fox News. He is the author of New York Times best-seller Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove attended the University of Utah, University of Maryland, George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught at UT-Austin and serves on the UT Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee.

Follow Karl Rove on Twitter @KarlRove.

JIM LEHRER, moderator, spent more than 35 years as a television host for PBS and is best known as the host of PBS NEWSHOUR. Along with hosting PBS’ nightly news program, Lehrer has moderated 12 nationally televised debates in the past seven presidential elections, earning him the moniker “Dean of Moderators.”

An accomplished author of 24 books, including 21 novels, Lehrer began his career in journalism as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and was later a columnist and editor for The Dallas Times-Herald. He also served a number of roles for KERA-TV.

Lehrer is the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious National Humanities Medal, which was awarded by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1999.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

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