Columnist George Will to speak at University of Tulsa

He has never, he says, had so much fun.

"Before I became a columnist," he said during a recent telephone interview, "I was briefly a professor of political philosophy and this is what I like to do."

Specifically, Will relishes dissecting the increasingly well-defined schisms in American politics.

"We have more European (type) parties in the sense they're more doctrinal," said Will. "I don't find that bad. I think it clarifies choices.

"I think we've got a very doctrinal president. One hundred years after ... the high tide of progressivism ... we have progressivism. This is what it looks like.

"Then, in the tea party, you have a sort of Madisonian revival saying this is not the constitutional architecture the founders intended for us."

Will, scheduled to speak on Feb. 2 at the University of Tulsa, said two things stand out about the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

One, he said, is that the "great source of surprise and energy and consequence in the Republican Party" - the tea party - is "sort of out in the cold at the moment."

He described Texas Gov. Rick Perry - for whom Will's wife Mari Will is an adviser - as the only real tea party candidate left.

"And he's hanging on by a thread," said Will.

Told that many Oklahoma tea partiers align themselves with Ron Paul, Will said, "I don't get that, frankly.

"I don't recoil from what he says, but he always goes way too far. He's a 'blame America first' conservative. We don't need any of those."

Will said the other striking aspect of the Republican campaign is the "astonishing resistance to Mitt Romney. It takes your breath away that no matter who he's running against, no matter where he's running, he's a 25 percent candidate."

The resistance, Will suspects, stems from a combination of Romney's political record and his public persona, and that "they're related in a funny way. The record suggests something kind of synthetic, and the caution of his campaigning suggests calculation. The record and the personality seem to reinforce one another, and not helpfully."

The American system of choosing its leader, through an idiosyncratic series of caucuses, primaries and behind-the-scenes deal-making, is like no other in the world. Will said "it could be better, but it's not too bad ... I'd prefer a bigger role for the parties instead of this individual entrepreneurship we have now with these candidates.

"But the campaign finance laws make this difficult. The democratic ethos makes this difficult."

Then, wryly, Will observed, "But I'm against popular election of senators. I'm way behind the curve on that."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and television commentator is read in more than 500 newspapers, including the Tulsa World. His TU appearance, at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 in Gussman Concert Hall of the Lorton Performance Center, is part of TU's Presidential Lecture Series and is sponsored by the Darcy O'Brien Endowed Chair.

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LECTURE

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Date: Feb. 2.

Place: Gussman Concert Hall, Lorton Performance Center, 550 S. Gary Place.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Original Print Headline: George Will to speak at TU

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Randy Krehbiel 918-581-8365
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120108_16_A19_CUTLIN714921&rss_lnk=12

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