(no subject)

[ebonlock]

Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas....

No More Mister Nice Blog points out:

Well, why not? What else is left for him to do? The consuming quest of the second term -- keeping the war going until Junior leaves office -- has been accomplished despite the Democratic takeover of Congress. All the pieces are in place: The quagmire worsens and therefore (see above) extrication of U.S. troops seems ever more difficult and dangerous; the testimony of Saint Petraeus will prevent a veto-proof majority from turning against the president; fear of al-Qaeda is on the rise again (nicely timed rumor of a dirty bomb attack, eh, Karl?) ... The whole thing's on autopilot. The blueprints are in final form; the workers can finish the job themselves -- they don't need the Architect.

Wish I could disagree with him. I'm just wondering whose campaign the Brain is going to work for next...

Comments

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

Rove is a classic example of the whole doctrine of "it's better to be lucky than good." In 2000, he managed to lose the popular vote, in 2002 he got by on 9/11 aftershock, in 2004 he managed to get an incumbent President re-elected with 51% of the vote, and in 2006 he managed to lose both houses of Congress.

The Rove offense, such as it is, relies on two things: keep saying something over and over until people believe it, and protect your own points of weakness by accusing your opponent of those weaknesses at the first opportunity. With most news relegated to cable, and a simplified he-said she-said approach rather than any actual investigation, and most "news channels" spending most of their time on yell-fest shows that would make Vince McMahon blush...well, the Rove gameplan wouldn't have worked in any other era of American politics, but it's ideally suites for the early 21st century.

That said, Rove's political equivalent of the neutral-zone trap doesn't have much of a future. The minute the opposition is willing to call obstruction, and get the calls, it's all over. And the way that the Internet has hooked the entire progressive movement up to the Juvenation Machine would seem to indicate that running a Rove-style offense has about as much future as the run-and-shoot.

(mixed enough sports metaphors for you?)

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Just read this on Ezra Klein's blog: (http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/autodidacts.html)

[Rove] was and remains an autodidact, and a large part of his self-image depends on showing that his command of history and politics is an order of magnitude greater than other people’s. Rove has a need to outdo everybody else that seems to inform his sometimes contrarian views of history. It’s not enough for him to have read everything; he needs to have read everything and arrived at insights that others missed.

He certainly believes himself to be a genius and has gotten the rest of the media and Washington talking heads to buy in as well...but yeah, the numbers don't add up.