Get Motivated's Tamara Lowe Is Wearing Last Week's Criticism Like a "Badge of Honor"

Peter and Tamara Lowe

​Apparently, there was some miscommunication at the offices of A. Larry Ross Communications, the firm that handles publicity for Get Motivated Seminars, Inc. Last week, as you will recall, Ross's office sent out a press release announcing that Tamara Lowe, co-founder of Get Motivated, wasn't at all happy with some of the coverage George W. Bush received after making his speaking debut at last Monday's motivational hoedown in Fort Worth. In the note, Lowe was quoted as saying Bush "delivered an inspirational, articulate and engaging speech" that received thunderous applause, yet the "media coverage continues to caricature his performance."

We didn't talk to Lowe Friday, as we'd hoped, because she didn't OK the press release after all, or so she tells Unfair Park today: "My publicity team sent that out without my approval," she says. "I was disappointed it went out. I don't have any frustration. Everybody's entitled to their opinion." Well, all right then.

"Part of it's entertainment," she says. "I consider it a badge of honor to be spoofed by The Daily Show or Jay Leno." Fair enough.

But what about the line in her missive about Bush's speech being "the best ever" given by a former president?

"He was comfortable and commanding, an amazing leader and communicator on the stage," she tells us. "It reminded me of Al Gore. During his tenure in the White House he was a stiff communicator. You didn't see his humor and intelligence until afterward."

Bush, she says, structured parts of his speech around various portraits in the White House and how they correspond to leadership principles. "He went through and shared the challenges he faced and the ways he dealt with that," she says. "The whole thing was first-class."

Though the lineup at the recent Fort Worth seminar was loaded with Bush-era politicians, Lowe insists the company's role "is not to be a political voice, but to be a forum," and stresses that she and her husband's company has featured speakers from across the political spectrum. The Fort Worth event's Republican-heavy tone was "partly because of the demographic we were in," Lowe says. "The alumni of our events are primarily responsible for the lineup of the day. We'll call people who have come in the past and they tell us who they want to see."