Karl Rove shares political insights at Randolph College

Newt Gingrich versus Mitt Romney versus Rick Santorum?

At this point in the Republican primary season, Karl Rove doesn’t have a dog in that fight. Rather, you might say, he's with the PAC.

Rove, who spoke at Randolph College on Thursday night, serves as an adviser to the giant fund-raising group American Crossroads, which has as its most pressing goal raising $240 million to defeat Barack Obama in November. And much of his talk was straight-up Republican politics, hurling anti-Obama numbers into the audience.

“I believe he should be treated with respect,” Rove said of the president, “because a lot of people like him. But they're also disappointed in him. The best thing to do is use his own words and promises against him.”

As for who might be squaring off against Obama, Rove — an occasional FOX News commentator — professed himself as confused as everyone else. At an informal news conference in Randolph’s Main Hall on Thursday afternoon, he declined to make a prediction.

“How weird is this?” he asked. “The top spot in the polls has changed six times, with four different people.”

As the architect of George W. Bush’s two successful presidential runs, and a proponent of the new style of attack politics, Rove became a lightning rod for public opinion, pro and con. That was illustrated by a few protest signs in front of Smith Hall on Thursday night, one proclaimed: “Rove is a Psychopath.”

Yet he was affable at the news conference and often funny in his talk and the crowd warmed to him after first seeming somewhat numbed by the barrage of poll numbers and tax rate figures.

Rove’s biggest applause line came when he waded into the millionaires-and-taxes controversy.

“I came from nothing,” he said. “I had to bus tables to pay my way through college, and I will not apologize for any success I’ve had since.”

Then he talked about visiting John Warner at the age of 25 about a possible job with his Senate campaign and being met at the door by Elizabeth Taylor.

“In a nightgown,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Rove expressed some dissatisfaction with the current primary system and the endless round of Republican debates.

“Every debate takes two days away from campaigning,” he said. “That’s 40 days, the way it’s set up now. You wonder if people will get sick of it. On the other hand, the last one had one of the biggest ratings.”

As a long-time campaign coordinator who watches the bottom line, he wonders about the wisdom of spending huge chunks of time in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“I think there’s more sentiment in the Republican Party to move the earlier primaries back in February,” he said. “We’ll see.”

One of the post-talk questions from the audience involved religion and politics.

“I think the American people like for their leader to be a person of faith,” he said.

That led to what he sees as inordinate media scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism.

“Picking apart someone’s religion has no place in a political campaign, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

And Rove?

“I’m an Episcopalian,” he quipped. “We’re not allowed to have strong religious views.”