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Bush adviser Goeglein visits, shares experience
as president's aide, friend
By Andrea Yeutter
Collegian Reporter
Tim Goeglein, special
assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy director of
the Office of Public Liaison, spoke to Hillsdale students, faculty,
staff and members of the community on April 7, with a speech
entitled "An Update from the White House."
"I'm a person who has a long title and
very little influence," said Goeglein, whose job description
includes communicating the president's policies to important
coalitions and constituency groups and reporting the public's
response back to the president.
"I disagree," freshman Pat Maloney
said, after meeting Goeglein. "There are no people with
long titles and little influence who work for the president
in the West Wing."
Goeglein delivered a 45-minute speech touting
the personal character and gutsy conservatism of the president,
pointing out that Bush signed tax cuts amounting to over $2
trillion, nominated the most conservative judges of any president
in history, and aggressively pursues policies supporting human
life before birth, as well as Second Amendment rights.
"When you go into the Oval Office, you
sit there and see these magnificent portraits of George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln," Goeglein said. "But the picture
that always catches my eye is the painting behind the president's
desk. It really sums up the character of George W. Bush."
The painting is named "A Charge to Keep,"
which happens to be Bush's favorite hymn. It depicts a horse
and a rider facing a perilous, yet unseen, danger. The horse's
face is marked by terror, but the rider's face indicates his
courage and resolve.
"That rider is serving someone and something
with higher purpose than anything immediately surrounding him,"
Goeglein said.
Following his speech, Goeglein opened the
floor to questions from the audience, answering inquiries about
the war in Iraq, the president's pending court appointees and
the upcoming presidential election.
"It was so interesting to get behind
the scenes information from someone who actually works in the
West Wing," Maloney said.
However, four years ago Goeglein didn't even
know what the Office of Public Liaison did. He had served 10
years as the communications director for Dan Coats, the Republican
senator from Indiana, and was planning on returning to the private
sector when Coats announced retirement plans.
Goeglein said Coats told him that after a
decade of public service, he would be making a big mistake if
he returned to the private sector without ever being involved
in a presidential campaign.
So, following the advice of his boss, Goeglein
packed up and moved to Austin, Texas, with his wife and their
two sons, then ages 4 and 2, and was hired by former Bush councilor
Karen Hughes to be the director of the coalitions press.
When Bush won, Goeglein was offered a job
in the Media Affairs Office of the White House, but turned it
down when Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist,
called "at the eleventh hour" and offered him his
current position.
Now, he said not a day goes by that he doesn't
think he has the greatest job in the world.
"To serve this president, at this time
in American history, I consider to be the greatest honor imaginable
in public life," he said. "George W. Bush is the rarest
of politicians. I've worked around politicians for 15 years-I've
seen them up close and personal, I've traveled with them-but
George W. Bush, almost uniquely, is exactly the same man in
private as he is in public."
As a child growing up in Fort Wayne, Ind.,
Goeglein said he had no idea he would work for the President
of the United States of America, although he did dream big.
He attended Indiana University in Bloomington
where he earned a double major in journalism and English and
a minor in history.
The summer before graduation he interned with
Coats in the House of Representatives during the week and with
NBC News on the weekends.
Immediately after graduation, Goeglein worked
as the TV producer at the NBC affiliate in his hometown, but
when Coats was appointed to the Senate, he offered Goeglein
a position.
During this time Goeglein married "the
love of my life and the only woman I've ever kissed," his
wife Jenny.
"Life is never dull, it's always rich,"
he said. "The professional part of my life is remarkably
varied and intellectually stimulating, but nothing is more important
than my Christian faith and my relationship with my wife and
children."
Looking back on his life Goeglein said he
realized that unpredictability is often a good thing.
"I can honestly say that the best things
that have happened in my own life professionally and personally
have been things I never could have planned for," he said.
"They're purely providential."
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