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Uncommon Knowledge: KellyAnne Conway
Kellyanne Conway discusses her life working on a New Jersey blueberry farm as an adolescent in the summers and being brought up by her mother, grandmother, and two unmarried aunts. She reflects on how she became conservative through the values her family placed in her and the inspiring reelection campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1984. Brought in by Donald Trump in August, Conway talks about how she told Trump that he was losing but there was a pathway to victory, which she helped the campaign realize and bring about Donald Trump’s victory. Finally, Conway discusses how she is able to balance being a wife and mother with running a presidential campaign and what the future holds for her.
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She is so impressive. And so are you, Peter!
As I observed about his kids, and some of the other people around him:
For those of us, which I would count myself amongst, who are skeptical, at best, of this man, the people who I find to have been around him throughout this process , in most cases, are soothing my nerves.
Wow. She is the most engaging public figure I have EVER heard.
The man does seem to have a nose for talent.
Pence/Conway 2024. Ya heard it here first!
Well worth the time spent. She is truly an amazing person, poised, smart and sincere. Very good interview.
She’s tough as nails. I’m respecting President-elect Trump more and more.
She’s a really impressive surrogate / spokeswoman.
A very interesting and timely interview.
By the way, there’s an Uncommon Knowledge interview with Jim Mattis here. (Patrick O’Brian fans will be pleased to hear Mattis refer to a fighting ship as a “man o’ war”!)
So nice to hear her speak to a non-hostile interviewer! Thanks for your good work, Peter. Makes me proud to be associated with you through R!
Great interview, Mr. Robinson.
She should be a feminist icon.
That was terrific! I hope President Trump is smart enough to keep her around. She’s very impressive, thoughtful and perceptive (kind of like Peggy Noonan but clearly isn’t as susceptible to the Beltway mindset/attitudes). I’m genuinely hopeful & excited.
As for Peter, there is something be said for hostile interviews but also for ‘non-hostile’ interviews. It’s interesting to see the volume and content of information that comes to the surface when done with a light, fair, non-sycophantic touch. Really fine job Mr. Robinson. I hope he interviews Steve Bannon.
Some people know how to pick ’em.
SHE is the 2016 Woman who broke the glass ceiling!! Get the word out
I want to work for KAConway!
There is a sincerity and honesty about her, and I believe her when she says she based her personal and professional life on principles
Fantastic interview by both of you. thank you!
Good interview. She is impressive. Two comments on the election stood out to me:
The campaign wasn’t going after “job seekers” or “job makers”, which Kellyanne said were each 7% of the electorate. They went after the other 86%.
The other was a comment about this being a change election and building campaign strategy around what they saw in polling data that:
This fits in with the post-election data that 18% of voters disliked both Clinton and Trump, but that group broke for Trump by 20% on election day (and even more in the key states).
I think I was a recipient of the polling call she mentions late in the interview, an in-depth poll like I’ve never experienced before or since. I was asked intelligent questions about immigration and allowed to choose from sensible answers framed in a sensible way, and then to elaborate on my responses. I enjoyed that experience unlike any other poll I’ve ever participated in, and I hung up the phone hoping that I would someday find out who was running that poll and that there would be someone, a party or a candidate or someone who would make something of that data.
Now I know. (Or at least I think I do!)
I have a new respect for blueberries. Wow what a person.
An impressive saleswoman.
If I was sitting across the table from her, I would probably be inclined to take more of it at face value. But I’m watching a video. So some of it strikes me as skillful spin.
It didn’t take a political genius to notice that common interests outside the Beltway were not reflected in the usual suspects, nor that many voters were sick of politicians who speak like brown-nosed lawyers. It didn’t take a political genius to know that polls always tighten in the end, or that an incendiary pop culture icon doesn’t need paid ads, and so on. This stuff has been written about by various Ricochet members for years… and been commonly remarked outside of politico brunches.
Did she offer any comforting details about those infrastructure projects? Kudlow said more, and even Kudlow could only say that “a lot” — not necessarily a majority — of that spending would be private and state investment due to deregulation.
On abortion, Trump has proposed nothing. The issue was not even listed on his site. Trust but verify.
Should anything about Bannon concern us? “Well, [to paraphrase] let’s look only at his better qualities.”
I have no reason to believe Conway is disingenuous. But she’s a salesperson. That’s her job.
Just listened to this interview. Wow! KellyAnne Conway–what a magnificent woman. For a guy who is the world’s worst misogynist, Donald Trump sure has great women around him. Thanks, Peter, for the insight into Mrs. Conway, her relationship with The Donald, and for being such an excellent interviewer.
She would be the first to agree with you, I think.
She’s clearly a very successful salesperson! As she says, it helps to have a product to sell.
What a wonderful interview of a most impressive woman. Thank you Peter.
Great job, Peter. I deliberately do not LISTEN to candidates or their surrogates in the run up to the election, I read what they write and say. That tends to knock down the spin and personality factor a bit. After the election I’m more eager to see ‘what we bought’ and judge the person a bit. Thanks for scratching that itch. Now, how about The Donald himself?
Thanks! Peter — I am generally not a “Fan” type person or someone impressed by celebrity status, but for a first time in my life — I would gladly wear a shirt that said “KellyAnne Fan”. Wow!
Would love to see Megyn Kelly interview her just to see long range sensors detect a disturbance in the Neutral Zone.
Some of you have doubtless heard of the conversation at Harvard’s Kennedy School between the Trump and Clinton campaigns, obviously featuring Conway. Here’s the full audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqMNSuAHybU
Wow! I just listened to the interview with Mattis. What an incredible man. We are so lucky to have a president elect who has chosen him to be Secretary of Defense. I feel safer already.
Thank you so much, Peter, for this episode. KellyAnne Conway was a big part of how I reluctantly brought myself to vote for Trump in the general election. I was so impressed by her everytime I saw her on tv. I figured if he was smart enough to put her in charge of his campaign, he can’t be all bad. She is one smart cookie and she had a civilizing influence on Trump. I am catiously optimistic for the 45th presidency, especially if KellyAnne continues to be involved.
She is so right that Mitt Romney should have embraced his private-sector success instead of running from it in 2012. I wish she had run Romney’s campaign instead of the hacktastic Stuart Stevens.
Trump brilliantly learned from Romney’s mistakes as we saw when he unashamedly announced he was rich right out of the box. It was shocking at first but necessary to blunt the attacks the Dems directed toward Romney as they excoriated him for his wealth and privilege.
Get Francis on the Horn, we need to waive a few miracles, stat!