Reply #6: I heard her speak today at the festival of books!

[uncertainty1999]

Watch it on c-span2:

5PM ET/2PM PT Sunday
Karen Hughes, "Ten Minutes from Normal"
LA festival of books.

I was there and heard her talk about her book (the event is worth its own thread, but I don't yet have enough posts to do so).

She was so peppy when she spoke, it made me wonder whether she was on something. You watch it, and you tell me - at once she was a charismatic speaker and totally detached when talking about 9-11, IMHO. Overall she was blowing a lot of hot air about how great bush is (no suprise there) and about her great family friendly work set-up.

About 7 of 10 questioners during Q&A after her talk asked her critical questions about the admin - I expected a few, but that far exceeded my expectations (I was too angry about Bush et al. to formulate a rational question until after the presentation, so I abstained from going to the mic). 2 people asked about bush-cheney hand-holding at the 9-11 commission hearings, and she had no answer for it except to say she was not part of that decision making and it's tricky to get the exec to testify because of separation of powers blah blah - basically she avoided answering the question - (because there is no flattering answer as we know!). She criticized Kerry and Al Franken for calling some people liars (at which point 3 people from the audience yelled at her that Bush IS a liar). when one person was being critical of her (and maybe he was being a bit nasty - I honestly don't remember the question very clearly) the Barnes and Noble people (who sponsored the event) offered to end the entire Q&A!!!. To Karen Hughes' credit, she stuck it out. Then again, she CAN speak confidently in public, not like her good friend GW who would have needed to cut out at that time.