Ken Mehlman

Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, and several of his colleagues were the guests at a Monitor lunch on Friday. Here are excepts from his remarks:

"One thing I learned a long time ago was not to make important decisions when you are tired. I'm tired. When I am less tired, I will make important decisions...."

"Our challenge is to take the passion behind a candidate and behind an agenda and make the agenda reality. And that's how ...you build a durable majority."

"Ultimately, we as a party have not done as good as job as we need to do over the last several elections reaching out to the African-American community.... We have to make a long term investment and we will."

"There is an effort to involve Democrats and there will be an effort to involve Democrats at every level in this process.... We very much will make them involved - early, late, and often."

"[F]rankly many times [it] was not objective.... [W]e get fairer coverage in regional media and local media...."

"[W]e had tremendous motivation [in get-out-the-vote efforts] and we had mechanics. And what they had was just mechanics."