Posted on 04/05/2010 6:08:23 AM PDT by RobinMasters
When I served as a Senior Speechwriter in George W. Bush's White House, Karl Rove was the bane of my existence. The rule was that no speech could ever go to the President without its first being reviewed by Mr. Rove, and since Karl was an extremely busy man, he often didn't call in his comments to the Speechwriting Office till eight or nine in the evening. By the time these comments reached me, they often seemed hopelessly cryptic and unintelligible, yet somehow I had to figure out a way to work them into my draft without offending all the other big-shots whose comments I had previously incorporated…And all the while, of course, the President was waiting for his speech.
But despite the grief he caused me, I am one of Karl Rove's biggest fans. Karl is a truly nice man -- modest, personable, and extremely approachable -- yet you couldn't spend more than five minutes with him without recognizing that you were in the presence of a towering intellect. But having just read his memoir, Courage and Consequence, I am forced to conclude that Rove, perhaps more than anyone else, was responsible for the election of Barack Obama in 2008.
Let me recount a bit of personal history by way of background. About four years ago, around the time when Democrats were heatedly charging that Bush had "lied" about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in order to build a case for war (after all, they argued, if the weapons had existed, why weren't we able to find them after liberating Iraq?), I was having lunch with Dr. Laurie Mylroie, one of America's leading students of terrorism in general, and Iraqi terrorism in particular. Laurie was beside herself with anger.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Ping
Karl Rove, “towering intellect” ??
No sale.
It would be a mistake to think that Rove made a ‘mistake’.
You get the leader ‘big money’ wants you to have.
Great read, thanks for posting it.
Rove is talented, but I think his mistake was more substantial than just not responding to Democrat charges. I think Karl is a “play as it lies” pol. He looks at the landscape and figures out how do I win given the current political climate. That’s why he favors going after the illegal vote and comes up with gimmicks like “compassionate conservative”. Reagan, on the other hand, sought to change the political climate by converting people to his point of view. Reagan was thinking ahead and placing his shots so that he didn’t have to contend with a bad lie.
I would say trhat the Bush administration’s failure to take on the MSM and their Democrat talking points on Iraq and the WMDs coupled with the failure of the Bush administration to adequately plan for a successor, along with the public perception to “make history” did the trick.
Cheney should have stepped down mid-way through the second term so that new face could have been selected and given a degree of experience to prepare for the 2008 election.
However, seeing how that administration functioned, they would probably have picked a compromise, RINO candidate to “appeal to everyone” and still have lost!
I would need to spend five minutes in his presence because it's just not that obvious from where I'm standing.
Wow...I did not realize exactly where the weapons had gone. Today the majority of all people believe that the intelligence was wrong.
Is this true:
“Why wasn’t the Bush administration citing Gen. James Clapper, the Director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, who said that satellite imagery proved conclusively that shortly before the war’s outbreak, Iraq had transferred its weapons of mass destruction to Syria? Why wasn’t it quoting Gen. Georges Sada, deputy chief of Saddam’s air force, or Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s chief-of-staff, both of whom also claimed that Saddam’s weapons had been transferred to Syria? “
Sigh. “Blame Bush/Rove” yet again. Try blaming the idiotic American electorate, who thinks they will get something for nothing; try blaming ACORN, who lie and steal; and above all, try blaming the boob McCain, who refused to run a race.
As I recall, the WMD were shipped to the “Beeka Valley” in Syria, and it was talked about all over the internet. Jet planes were uncovered from under the sand, and a huge find of yellow cake uranium was even found and shipped to Canada, according to a CNN Article. But, this was no worse than not showing the clips of bwarney, maxine waters, etc. etc. refusing to fix the bad loan practices fannie/freddie that were still over at youtube.com, the last time I looked. We could have stuck the banking collapse on the democrats like a tarbaby....WT*? Makes me think a higher, and common, force was pulling the strings
Essentially, you are saying that Rove is a tactician versus a strategist. There’s truth to that . . . .
Yes, President Bush and Karl Rove mishandled some aspects of the war PR campaign. Nevertheless, it’s a real stretch to blame Karl Rove for the election of Obama.
Ultimately, the blame lies with those millions who elected him without doing their homework. I’m not talking about the hard left who correctly expected him to govern as a socialist. I’m talking about those voters who foolishly fell for the hype and elected him expecting hope and change of a different sort.
The power to vote is a very valuable thing that should not be taken lightly. Most of the world doesn’t possess it. A billion Chinese, for example, would probably love to have what millions of Americans foolishly squandered in 2008.
Well, I once thought Carter was going to be a good president, too. We’re all entitled to make mistakes, and hopefully a lot of voters have now learned the hard way that votes do count.
Someone (maybe it was me, I don’t remember) posted a thread about Rove’s upcoming (at the time) book. I remember thinking to myself, this will be an interesting read. Meanwhile, on the thread, other FReepers were claiming, “I don’t need to read it.” Cracked me up.
The reason Obama is President? John McCain was the Bob Dole of the 21st Century.
I blame W.
Here’s just a few others that elected hussein obama:
George Soros - economic terrorist that should be sent to Malaysia for trial. We demand other nations send us terrorists against the USA but we harbor terrorists like Soros. I am sure that there are other nations that would want him on trial.
Soros acts like he gives a damn about the poor but yet he cause economic havoc against poor nations.
Soros also moved the HQ of his business to the Bahamas so that he wouldn’t have to pay USA taxes. The punk wants so much influence on this nation but doesn’t pay its taxes. Soros is a major advocate of decriminalization of drugs. The place where he has his business located is known for its drug money laundering.
Soros pulls the democrat parties wagon with organizations like moveon.org and several other extremist left groups.
David Geffen billionaire gay activist that played a major role in getting hussein obama elected.
David Axelrod did a replay of the same game that got Devel Patrick elected governor of Mass. — “Yes We Can,” “Just words,” etc.
Axelrod’s mother used to write for a communist newspaper so is there any doubts as to his agenda?
Of course you’ve got your ACORN and other leftist groups that contibuted to our current economic situation (forced sub-prime loans, etc.).
And we should never forget the effort that the MEDIA made to get hussein obama elected.
That’s just to name a few.
The man who was most responsible for the election of Barack Obama was George Bush, when he signed TARP.
From what little I have heard of Rove’s book, he makes the same point you do in your first comment. There seemed to be a level of frustration on the part of rove when they didn’t fight back...
- Allowing the Democrats and media to get away with saying that the tax cuts were for the rich only.
- Not placing the subprime loan scams on the Democrats and not saying that the Republicans attempted to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going back to 2003 but that legislation was killed by the Democrats in 2004, 2005, & 2006.
Good for you to remind all of this...
This info is a perfect example of the dissembling of the MSM since Nam that ill serves the country - they should be brought up on charges of treason for the cover-ups...
I always said that Bush's biggest fault was his unwillingness to defend himself. And this goes for just about anything.
Also Rove's plan to out-democrat the democrats when it came to spending was a bad idea too.
I *sigh* with you !!!
Incredible how some spend time trying very hard to marginalize themselves....
The election was lost long before that.
I remember seeing satellite photos of Russian trucks, over 1400 in one convoy alone, heading out of Iraq and into Syria weeks prior to the invasion. Now, those photos are nowhere to be found. Similarly, there was an article in the local Chattanooga newspaper that said 4000 tons of partially enriched uranium was shipped out of Iraq to the Oakridge Y-12 plant. The Oakridge employee who leaked the information was reportedly dismissed. Now, that article is nowhere to be found, although other FReepers in the Chattanooga area also remember reading the article. The banking collapse and sub-prime mess should have been hung around Barney Frank's neck, especially with various statements Frank made in the years prior about Fannie and Freddie "not being in crisis". This entire thing stinks to high heaven if you axe me. WT*, indeed!
The person most responsible for obama’s win was Mike Huckabee. His strong anti-abortion message took Evangelical Christian Conservative Primary votes away from Fred Thompson, and by splitting those Conservative votes, it left mclame standing, and 15,000,000 Conservatives stayed home in November because they couldn’t stomach mclame.
Beceause that would have been partisan.
McCain was the final nail in the coffin.
I’m no fan of Karl Rove, but the man who elected Obama is none other than John McCain.
Yep! McCain was yet another example of how the Republicans nominate the next guy in line. The election was lost when McCain won the nomination and I said so at the time.
The unpopularity of the war and the “Bush Lied” theme was huge in the 2006 election. It was catastrophic, but wasn’t George W. Bush President of the United States at the time? You would think he had a political thought of his own and did not wait for Rove to pull the string.
You hit the nail on the head. Bush’s loyalty (like his father’s with Dan Quayle) were laudable, but not politically helpful.
Much as I hate to say it, it's a lesson he could have learned from The Nameless One: the importance of an effective instant-response squad, and continual campaign.
Having said all that, I blame the voters, period. Though the MSM did its best to get 0 elected, reasons for rejecting him weren't in secret code under a rock at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
There was considerable discussion about this on FR at the time. As I recall, many of us, myself included (and you), could not understand why the administration didn’t counter the ‘Bush lied’ attacks. There was considerable circumstantial evidence available to the public at the time about a Syrian connection.
The administration had substantial knowledge judging by this article (Rove was aware...), although this lonely speechwriter was apparently clueless. Yet what do we have when the President’s political adviser asserts lone responsibility for not countering the disinformation? There surely had to be any number of others who had the President’s ear, who could have made the case. It just seems there’s more to this yet.
Soros acts like he gives a damn about the poor but yet he cause economic havoc against poor nations.
Soros also moved the HQ of his business to the Bahamas so that he wouldn’t have to pay USA taxes. The punk wants so much influence on this nation but doesn’t pay its taxes. Soros is a major advocate of decriminalization of drugs. The place where he has his business located is known for its drug money laundering.
Soros pulls the democrat parties wagon with organizations like moveon.org and several other extremist left groups.
How hard would it be to deliver Soros to Malaysia, with a small militia led by Dog the Bounty Hunter? I'd donate to that effort!
McCain is a boob.
The conservative part of this country did not nominate him. Too many were allowed to cross over during the primaries.
I lived in Indiana then, and my primary vote meant nothing.
This country needs a national primary day or 4 regional primaries, otherwise, we will be saddled once again with a McCain or Dole.......token candidates, no chance to win.
Orwell's 1984 "memory holes" are alive and well and used religiously by the leftist media.
I thought this article was exactly right about Rove. I’d always had the image of Rove as nothing more than a Political Animal. Even the passage cited here from his own book shows it! He says he should have done more to counter the claims Democrats were making. For the historian he & others brag on him to be, Rove evidently forgot Stalin’s famous mantra that “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth” - which is what WMD’s became. Instead of that he said he decided to “focus on the (reelection) campaign”. These charges he left unanswered made his campaign much more difficult than it ever would have had to be. The strategy employed by them to not answer these charges and other attacks was based on the Rove Held Principle of: “When you roll around with pigs you get dirty”. Well, I guess you could say that about any enemy then - including Islamic terrorists, right Karl?. Rove’s failure or disinterest in standing for his principles shows that at root, he really has no principles. He’s a Political Hack - he’s only interested in the optimal calculus for the greatest political expediency. One thing is true: neither he nor Bush is a true Conservative.
And in a bizarre inversion, he was the one largely responsible for trying to be gracious to the very Democrats who were out to destroy him & Bush. Rove decided on the Rodney King approach in DC- “ Can’t we all just get along?”. Not only did it get us a Republican President Bush who forgot he even had a Veto Pen, but Rove’s approach was critical in establishing within the Republican Braintrust that “working with Democrats more often” will stop the harshness of the public attacks against Republicans. That mindset of “reaching across the aisle” gave us McCain. And McCain led to the election of Obama. Conservatives felt betrayed by the Bush Spending and desire to surrender to Democrats legislatively far too often, and by McCain putting that doctrine on steroids for his campaign. Rove had a huge hand in this fallout, there is no question about it.
Neither Rove nor Dubya was a true Conservative - if they had been they never would have allowed those WMD charges, nor other attacks, to go unanswered. Bush & Rove are exactly like Bush Senior & Rockefeller: Country Club Republicans. They campaign on strategy and not principles, which is what ultimately leads to their collapse. They seek political expediency for their benefit - so they’re little more than Political Animals. Their Dirty Little Secret is: both Rove & Dubya believe in the power of government to do things in people’s lives- that’s why they GREW IT! They thought they were above Conservative principles for the expressed purpose of making deals with Democrats trying to destroy them (like the Bush nonsense about having to surrender his Free Market Principles signing TARP so he could “save” the Free Market; if that doesn’t tell you he’s no Conservative nothing will). If he missed that, then Rove wasn’t much of “Bushs Brain”.
Rove a little perhaps, but you've got many of the reasons right here. There were many reasons for the Obama/Dem tragedy, and this FR thread is at least encouraging in that there are people who see it all.
We are NOT playing with amateurs here. They use the full deck.
The challenge is to break through the media front and the electorate's apathy/ignorance. And it takes some real soul searching which Americans are not good at.
Interesting. I was always perplexed why the Bush administration didn’t stand up to the charges made daily by liberals. It’s a shame they didn’t articulate what needed to be said, although a campaign could not be run smoothly by defending an unpopular war.
The Republican landscape had been badly damaged, but even with McCain, the Republicans came fairly close to taking the election. It was no “mandate” for the left.
Plenty of blame to go around, (Soros, ACORN, etc.) but I’d mostly blame the deceitful MSM for keeping the truth from the people and promoting this socialist presidency.
Welcome to FR. 'A kid at the controls'? Compared to whom, Barack Hussein Obama? If you're one who believe we shouldn't respond to a major attack on our soil in our enemy's backyard, then your stay here will be an unhappy one. May I suggest the DU, or KOS, or some other site that advocates 'talk' and diplomacy when confronted with aggression? They're more suited to the pantywaists of our society.
***Sigh. “Blame Bush/Rove” yet again. Try blaming the idiotic American electorate, who thinks they will get something for nothing; try blaming ACORN, who lie and steal; and above all, try blaming the boob McCain, who refused to run a race.***
Thank you for saying the above. It’s exactly the same reaction I had to the article. I expect that the author read Rove’s book; was under pressure for a quick article, and found a gnat he could pick at and expand into a charging rhinocerous for his subject.
“Karl Rove, “towering intellect” ??
No sale.”
Rove seems pretty bright to me.
Now if you want to see examples of intellectual nothingness, check out anyone in the Obamloon-O-dent cabinet.
“The PRESS elected Barack Obama by their mis-feasance, non-feasance and mal-feasance with regard to his past and his likely true intentions. “
nail on the head!
“...they would probably have picked a compromise, RINO candidate to “appeal to everyone” and still have lost!”
Well, think about this - if Cheney had stepped down and been replaced by McLame, and then McLame lost (as he did), he would no longer be the fnn Rino in the Senate that he is.
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