YouSaid · the spoken record

Mark McKinnon

lines on the record: 96
first: 2016-07-21
most recent: 2016-07-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Kind of character. So we go through this focus groups and people say I disagree with him on this. I disagree with him on that. I disagree with him on that. And in the end, you'd say, well, if you had an opportunity to go have a beer with Al Gore, George Bush, unanimous George Bush.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How he lived his life. He went through some dissolute times. Big time. Big time. And so that caught my attention. Like I said, he had a real clarity of vision and what he believed, and so I love that politically. But the other thing about him is that we talk about this is the classic focus group story. The people that we ran against, we were blessed by our opposition in both 2000 and 2004 in the sense that even if people disagreed with George Bush politically, they saw him as an authentic.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, as I said, I sort of got to know him personally before I got to know him professionally. And he's one of the people you meet not just in politics, but in life that is so engaging and so authentic, so fun, and also a real moral clarity about the guy. This was a guy that you meet. He kind of sees life in sort of black and white in terms of values about honesty and family. initially sort of in a way he was kind of a mentor to me in the sense of like being a father and a citizen. I kind of looked at him and I'd just been running around doing my business and stuff. And he kind of caught my attention. It's like, you know, you need to start thinking about how you live your life. Not just what you do.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so he was really attracted to that idea and that message. And so I crossed the bridge. And with the exception of a few rifle shots, most people, including people like Paul Bagala, came out and publicly said, listen, I know McKinnon. I trust that this motive here that is pure and not some calculated political.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that was a big issue in our campaign in 19. I remember some advisors in 1999 saying, you should be careful about this issue. And he said, oh no, I don't care what you think.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, sure. Well, it was a very difficult decision. It took me months to make it. And I thought long and hard about it. But I had at that time just ideologically, I mean, I've always been kind of in the middle somewhere. I was a little left of center early on in my life, but I'd kind of grown more conservative and it was kind of a radical free trader. And, you know, just on some issues that just been kind of drifting more conservative. And then the most powerful thing was that George Bush came along with this message about compassionate conservatism. This is again amazing to think about now, but one of the big messages that he was talking about at the time that really attracted me was his pro immigration message. He was embraced it full-throated. I mean, he was a big-time immigration supporter.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just a little. And so in the middle of that, I had gotten to know George Bush. I was gotten excited about charter schools and I was doing a kind of a film thing about charter schools. And so I had a meeting with him, showed him the film. He got excited about charter schools too. And then we got to know each other just on a social level. And he had girls just about my girl's age, two girls. I had two girls. He liked to run. I like to run. We started running together and just, you know. and biking. And then in the middle of all that, his media guy at the time got into some legal trouble and had to bail out. And so Bob Bullock and Carl Roven, some others kind of got together and said, you know, why don't we have McKinnon do this?”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They run the state senate and have all kinds of executive authority, and the governor has limited powers. Anyway, they became very close, so close that when Bush ran for re-election, Bullock, the Democrat, endorsed Bush over his godson, Gary Morrow, who ran against Bush. Awkward.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Super powerful. Yeah, really more powerful than the governor. And they showed what it's like when you have real bipartisan leadership. We”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Did corporate work and public affairs. And so I was kind of focused on that, but I was also very close to the lieutenant governor of Texas named Bob Bullock, who was a legendary character. And Bob Bullock became a mentor to George W. Bush, and they became very close friends, and they governed in a way in Texas that we all wished.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, not just blurry. I mean, it's hard for people to remember back that far, but it's really not that ancient history. But in 1990, I worked with Anne Richards, ran for governor and she won. There's 28 constitutional statewide offices in Texas. In 1990, every single one of them was a Democrat. In 2008, eight years later, every single one of them was a Republican. There was no Republican party in Texas for the longest time. You were either a conservative, Democrat, or a Democrat. You were Lloyd Benson Democrat, or you were a Ralph Yarborough Democrat. So there really wasn't an alternative if you were there, you were a Democrat. And I just, you know, the evolution happened right as I was getting older. I was having family. There were some issues.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The male guy saying, now we need 20 for mail and we need street money, and we're having this big argument, and Lanier, who was 6'4 and had size 15 boots and a big cigar was in the back of the room, and he leans back, and I remember just hearing his booming bows going. Boys quit. He said, So Lanier leans back and he says, Boys, just spend it till you waste it. Yeah, those.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I went and lived with him. I mean, that's how he was a super confident guy, but he didn't know politics. If I hire you guys, you got to live with me. And we did. But one of my favorite stories from that campaign was, you know, in a classic budget meeting of the campaign, we're all in there. We're all arguing for our little piece of the pie. I'm like, no, we need 10,000 more for media.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and people were really concerned about crime and safety at that point. And this was a classic example of people saying, well, Article 3 of city rule four says you can't do that. And he says, elect me and watch me.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, he was running for mayor, and this was a guy who was old, white, rich, and this is the sort of thing where people like you and I kind of sit down with him early on the campaign and he says something I'm thinking about running for mayor and we look at the data and we kind of go you might want to rethink this because it's like everything that voter has hated he was a real estate guy, a banker, a lawyer, you know, just not compelling any way on paper. Beyond the paper, he was a real live, deep human being who cared passionately about city and sort of in the old style of like he was a citizen who just wanted to give something back.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, still very much a consigliary and close friend and one of the great talents and great people in the business. But he decided that he was going to get out of the political business at the time and just go completely commercial. And I just saw an opening then and said there's room for another ad guy down in Texas. So I went and set up shop down in Texas.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. Yeah, then I had this one of the other greats of our business, a guy named Roy Spence from Texas. And Roy had done politics for a long time. He's done a lot of work with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Work side by side with manufacturer with Hillary Clinton has been for years and a very, very smart lady. Well, super smart. And I mean, she was, I mean, I sat side by side with her, and she was an awesome town then as an awesome talent now. And I learned a lot from her too. Yeah.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. First, I went to New York and I worked for David Sawyer, who was Bob Squires' counterpart, and one of the real godfathers of the business. And the thing that was great for me was that he was older, and at that point he didn't want to be running around the world, but he and Bob Squire, like I said, had started exporting American-style democracy. I got to do campaigns in South America and Africa. And, you know, he'd get hired and then send me to go do the work. really got thrown in the deep end fast and it was a great way to learn. And then I did that for a while. Was Mandy?”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the thing I loved about him was he was a great example of so many politicians that we worked for want to make everybody happy. Romer understood the value of Steppin on some big toes and make it clear that I'm willing to take out some people. I believe strongly enough that I'm going to take some pain.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I'm sorry, the rumory I did. Yeah, so the great thing about, but I mean, you and I both know that. Sort of the most boring thing you can do in politics is a talking head ad. Well, this contradicts that because this guy on camera was so compelling, lit it up. But his basic message was that it was kind of this reform message before there were reformers, especially in Louisiana. But the last line was one that I loved. I mean, he said, I'm going to take on, you know, I'm going to burn down the Department of Education. But the last line, which was so great, he said, I love Louisiana. I love Louisiana enough to make some people angry.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Buddy Romer was just, the reason he was so compelling was that he was a great mix of Louisiana raccontour. He was a big poker player and reporters poker earnings during Congress. But he also went to, here's the trick. He does all this kind of the James Carville thing, this turns out he went to Harvard at 16 and then got his MBA at Harvard at 18, super smart. But we were, in fact, I remember one point in the campaign, we were so broke that we had a press idea that we had $50,000 left in the campaign and we decided that we'd just go for a break. We go to Las Vegas and put it on red. And we'd either go broke or keep the campaign going.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, Edwards was so good. I mean, you know, we talk about politicians and what's compelling today and you look at what works and what doesn't and what people really are hungry for today is authenticity. That's the kind of thing Edwards had. I mean, it was like people knew that he stole and he cheated, but he was candid about it. Yeah, I do, but I'll steal for you. Yeah, exactly.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the request of the federal government. Here's a classic, why it's so colorful in Louisiana. I'm working for Buddy Romer, who's this reformer running against Edwin Edwards, whose former chief of staff, Buddy Romer's father, was in prison at the time.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Working for Buddy Romer, who was barely mentioned in most of the stories about that race early on. He was a congressman from Northeast Louisiana, and nobody ever wins from Northeast Louisiana because it's lightly populated. And we're running against Edwin Edwards, the greatest candidate. He'd won 19 elections in a row.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yeah, in fact, when I told him, he said, I completely endorse that, and it's true. And by God, it was. That was by far my favorite year in politics. And I learned more that year than I have the rest of my life. Wor”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Gary Marl, the land commission. What happened was I talked to somebody who I really admired and respected, and they said, if you think you know anything about politics, go to Louisiana and get your PhD.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, what happened is Raymond offered me a job, but I had a couple of different options. One, by the way, was Dick Morris called me and asked me if I wanted to go to work for a governor in Arkansas named Bill Clinton, and I got on a conference call with Dick Morris and Betsy Wright to talk about that.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Squire and Sawyer were really the pioneers. In fact, there was a book written about them called Alpha Dogs. I don't know if you've read that before. You should if you haven't, because that book details the evolution of the export of American-style campaigns. And it's really interesting. And it's written with, if it's written by a legitimate Wall Street Journal reporter. So it's got a critical view of it. It's not just some.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that's right. They work with White. And then I said that married up all my interests, writing television, storytelling.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was a press assistant in the press office of the governor's office, and then I went over and was the press secretary for his campaign. And that's when I started working with people like Ray Struther, David Sawyer.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then I thought, well, that's the end of my political career. And then this is when I discovered you can fail upward in politics. And I got a call from the governor's office the next week saying, come on over.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then I just completely got the bug. And this is also, I mean, it was a great classic campaign. We won the big upset primary. And then we got crushed in the general. It was Reagan year. Yeah.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly So I went over there, and I'd never worked on a political campaign, but I just wanted to volunteer and was happy to do that, did that for a week or two, and then I saw a sign down in the basement that said, you know, looking for people to do data input for five bucks an hour. And that was like a lot more money than I'd ever made. I said, great, I'll do that. Did that for a couple of weeks and I was in the basement? And then one day Bagalo walked down to the basement, goes, hey, McKinnon's down here. This guy can do some press. So they floated me up to the press office, and then I started doing press.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, yeah, so Paul and I have a lot of history, and a lot of people have a lot of history with that campaign. It was a kind of a seminal campaign for a lot of people who are still in the business today. Steve Domenico and lots of people that you know.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just barely missed getting drafted. So just was surrounded by all that local state senator in Austin named Lloyd Doggett who decided to begun.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not particularly, but I was a child of the 60s and it was hard to grow up in the 60s without being somewhat political. Yeah, yeah.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, I was there in Austin, Texas, and there was this big university, and I had always said I'd try a little higher education. So I did that and very quickly migrated to the Daily Texan, which is the newspaper there at the University of Texas. And then I love to write, and so I wrote a lot, and I wrote a lot about politics because I loved politics. So I started writing about politics.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I do. Some about a year ago when he came to Austin and he's doing well, but he's having some issues from his boxing days and lots of concussions.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely not. I mean, the last thing Chris Christopher needed was any help from anybody, especially me. No, he was just really a great mentor and let me live in his apartment and kick around the politics. He's still around, right? He is. Yeah.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, part of the reason I love songwriting is I've always loved storytelling. And I loved writing. Always loved writing like you. And the reason I like music was the songwriting part of the business.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I got really lucky when I was in high school, he heard our band and then decided to produce us to try to get us a record deal, which no surprise if you heard the tapes didn't work out. But I ran away. I got the bug and I ran away from home, hitchhiked to Nashville, lived in his apartment for about three years, kicked around the music business. That's how I ended up in Austin, Texas. I went to play at the Kurville Folk Festival in 1975 in Texas and discovered Austin and fell in love with Austin. And that's how I got there. And then did that for a while, but on the arc that I was on, I realized I was going to end up as the second act at the Flugerville holiday inn when I was 50 years old. And I said, it's time to go to Plan B.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that's true, and especially up in the mountains where I live now. But the great thing is that I now have a daughter and grandchildren in Colorado, and we've kind of come full circle, and I'm back in the mountains of Colorado, which I love.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was a doctor. He was a doctor in a great classic country doctor, you know, the kind of guy that went bankrupt a couple of times because he was always working for free and helping people out. We have like tons of art that people would give him instead of money for surgery. It was just one of those great classic docs and spent a lot of most of the”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, my dad did Denver and Boulder. Yeah, yeah, they did. And my dad, most importantly, and I remember being like four years old and going into his closet. And it was like a dad closet, which had just cool dad stuff. There was just cool trinkets and stuff and cufflinks and maybe a rifle or something. But the coolest thing to me on the top shelf was his Stetson. And I remember thinking, I can't wait till I'm old enough to have my own.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nearby. There's not a picture of me growing up I don't have a hat on. I've just always loved hats. And it started with my dad who did some ranching early on in his career.”
2016-07-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 68 - Mark McKinnon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source