And now from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, the Act Spiles, with your host, David Axelrod.

Matthew Dowd is one of the most interesting people I know.

He's a fellow veteran of the political wars. Like me, he believes that the political system has meaning and devoted 35 years of his life to it, including two campaigns for George W. Bush, after which he had a very public and commented on break.

I had a chance to sit down with Matthew recently at the Institute of Politics, where he's a fellow this fall, and he had so many fascinating observations about his own journey, about politics and the Pope. So here's that conversation.

Matthew Dowd, my fellow grizzled political warrior veteran, good to be with you.

Thank you for being at the IOP as well. So we're in the middle of a presidential race. Are you getting, do you get, you know, hives? Do you get, do you feel like, man, I just want to be right in there running another presidential campaign?

You were the lead strategist in two for George W. Bush. You've been involved in politics for a very long time. You're getting a nostalgic at all times like this?

The logic is probably better way to describe it than, than, than, than addiction, you know, as you know, that it took a little while to break through it, because so much of my life was every campaign every two years. There was something or every four years. There was something, and it took a while to take step back from it.

I do miss a couple aspects of it. I missed a team camaraderie that is built around campaigns. It's unlike anything else that I've been involved in, and I've done a lot of consulting and a lot of others, but that team that you have for one common purpose, all believing in the same thing together, is an amazing thing.

And also is, it's an aspect that when I first got attracted to politics long, long ago, was what could you do to improve the country or the world or your community and all that?

And then once you do that, you then have to discover other ways, if that's what you want to do as your mission in calling in life. You have to discover other ways, but it was something that was basically for 35 years, what I thought I was going to do as my calling, which is in the campaign.

I totally get what you're saying about the camaraderie. I've spent my life in newsrooms and campaigns. One of the reasons I started the Institute of Politics was I wanted to build another team, and I want to be surrounded by idealistic young people. So that's how I've filled in that gap.

So you mentioned 35 years in politics. Talk a little bit about how you got into it and how you were attracted to. You grew up in Detroit.

I grew up in Detroit and in a family that we talked about politics of 10 brothers and sisters, so in Irish Catholic family.

Catholic family in Detroit. I was, you know, there were seven boys in the family. And so in any Irish Catholic.

That sounds like a lot of politics right there.

It is. I learned actually the art of building coalitions in the middle of 11 children.

I was supposed to be actually the priest. It was when in many Irish Catholic families, if there's a lot of boys, somebody is supposed to be the priest.

And I think my mom and tag me. I didn't work out well because I sort of was interested in girls.

And if the church wasn't as progressive, then as it may be getting today. But I actually got attracted to politics in the summer of the Watergate hearings when I was 12 years old.

And I was always interested in it and watched it. But that watching the hearings, we went up to summer vacation up on Northern Lake Michigan.

And I remembered during the Watergate hearings watching them while everybody was else was playing on the beach and doing all the things they do.

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