American political consultant Karl Rove is seen at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, during final preparations for the opening of the Republican National Convention on August 27, 2012. Due to tropical storm Isaac, the convention will come to order later today, Monday August 27th, and then immediately recess until the afternoon on Tuesday, August 28th. AFP PHOTO Brendan SMIALOWSKI
SEARCY, Ark. (AP) - Former Bush White House adviser and Republican strategist Karl Rove spoke in Arkansas the same night as the second presidential debate.
Rove, who spoke Tuesday night at Harding University in Searcy, served as former President George W. Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff.
Rove appears regularly as a contributor on Fox News and he writes a weekly op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
During his speech Tuesday, he said the biggest worry is not who will win on election day, but rather the 55 days between the election and the new year. That's when, Rove says, some very hard decisions need to be made.
"We'll have to raise the debt ceiling; we're bumping up against it. We have to worry about what we're going to do about the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts, all of which expire on December 31st. We have to figure out what to do about the extension or non-extension of the payroll tax holiday.
Rove spoke in a congressional district now represented by his protege, freshman Republican Tim Griffin. Griffin worked in the White House office of political affairs during Bush's presidency with Rove. Griffin is running for re-election against Democratic challenger Herb Rule.