If I had a bucket list, which I do not (I suppose creating a bucket list is my one current entry in my bucket list), and if being on C-SPAN was on that list, it has now been met.
Last year on December 12 we returned home from our entire family visit to Disneyworld and Ellen and my visit to her parents in Hilton Head. We had tickets to see Kiss Me Kate at the Shakespeare Theatre that evening, but also had received an invitation to a book signing by Karl Rove for his newly released book on William McKinley’s 1896 election, The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters.
I remember listening to Karl when we visited him in Austin in 1999 talking even then about the McKinley election and his hopes, not entirely realized, of using that as a model for a then only possible George W. Bush presidency. I had planned to buy the book anyway, so decided to drop by the book signing on the way to the theatre. For once there was an overlap between my political interests and background and Ellen’s book focus.
What Ellen and I did not know was that the entire event was being filmed for C-SPAN Books on TV (Ellen finds it funny when sometimes I listen to C-SPAN Books on TV on the radio which I guess integrates a fairly mixed media provisioning).
In any event, here is a link to the video. Ellen and I wander in around 7:14 for a minute. Then Ellen has a lengthy chat with Karl about his book starting at 11:45 or so, along with another long-time friend Bob Weed, I join again at 15:55. Karl signs my book starting at 19:58. We shortly had to leave unfortunately missing Karl’s discussion of the book and William McKinley’s political significance starting around 39:00.