They came from opposing political parties and advised two different U.S. presidents, but Ari Fleischer and Paul Begala agreed on one thing one month before the November election — the presidential election would be a close one and young voters would be key.

“We’re on the verge of an incredibly close election for the presidency of the United States and I say that as someone who survived the 2000 recount,” said Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary to George W. Bush and worked on his 2000 campaign.

Fleischer and Begala were on campus in October headlining the annual Fogelson Honors Forum.

Both Republican Fleischer and Begala, a Texas-born Democratic political strategist who helped Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton win the White House in 1992, peppered their comments with political digs at the opposing party and presidential candidates President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney.

Begala noted that no modern-day president has been able to win re-election with an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, but the Republicans have been too inept to capitalize on it.

“Every time I look at the economy, I think Obama can’t win, but every time I look at the Republicans I think he can’t lose,” he said.

Begala also played up the importance of young voters getting to the polls, noting that six out of 10 young people who voted for Obama in 2008, stayed home in 2010 when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Get in the game and stay in the game, this is the only game for grown-ups,” he said. “This matters. This is consequential in the most important way, in every way.”