“The notion that Rove is a “boy genius” was always a croc IMO.”
Probably.
If he was actually attempting to win victories, yes, it is all hype. What should have been comfortable wins were all paper thin, nail biting squeakers, and should be set in the context of a steady decline of GOP and conservative power and influence. Those who brayed and who still bray about his intellectual excellence always struck me as a bit stupid though, so it may have been a comparative genius.
If his real life’s work was to drag the institutional GOP and its more unreflective vassals towards a Hubert Horatio Humphrey kind of place and as far away from Reaganism as possible, then he is indeed a genius, albeit in an Iago-Quisling kind of way.
Agreed. Both candidates running against Bush were awful and he should’ve won easily. What Rove has done for Bush and the GOP is not impressive, at all.