Corrupt Government
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Title: Rove, the grand strategist, faces defeat
Source:
ft.com
URL Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/11ecdfa0-6f53-11db-ab7b-0000779e2340.html
Published: Nov 8, 2006
Author: Caroline Daniel
Post Date: 2006-11-08 21:53:20 by TLBSHOW
Keywords: None
Views: 1071
Comments: 5
Rove, the grand strategist, faces defeat In January, Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, gave a speech that epitomized his breezy confidence about the future for the party. Republicans had gone from being “a minority party with little influence to one that is broad and inclusive, self-assured and optimistic, forward-leaning and dominant.” That speech now seems sepia tinted. The mood of the party is instead pessimistic, defensive and lacking in confidence. The congressional losses mark the most serious political defeat for the man who was the architect of two presidential election victories. Will Mr Rove’s reputation as a peerless strategist survive it? President George W Bush, on Wednesday prompted shocked “oohs” at a press conference when asked whether he was winning a reading contest with Mr Rove. “I’m losing. I obviously was working harder on the campaign than he was.” In spite of that barbed aside, he is unlikely to rethink his relationship with his closest aide: Mr Rove was in a small group at the dinner-cum-political wake on election night in the old Family Dining Room. The roomful of disappointed men ate comfort food: corn bisque, beef loin, apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Still, the defeat threatens Mr Rove’s most important legacy: cementing a political realignment that installed the Republicans as the natural party of government. He wanted Mr Bush become the William McKinley of his age: a reference to the 25th president of the US who became president in 1897 and ushered in a period of republican dominance that lasted to the Great Depression. That plan was evident after 2004, when the administration courted new groups of voters such as Hispanics with immigration reform, and culturally conservative African American voters. Yet these outreach efforts have been overshadowed by a polarizing style of governance, demonizing Democrats to ensure the support of a disaffected conservative base. “He would have had a better chance of building a long term coalition if he governed as a politician not as an ideologue,” said Cal Jillson, professor at Southern Methodist University. Mr Rove had assumed the guiding convictions of his lifelong hero, Richard Nixon: that you govern to be re-elected. Yet the election losses have confirmed the flaws in the strategy of governing for the base. “The problem the Republicans have is a middle problem. They are getting killed among independents,” said Chuck Todd, editor of the Hotline. “And the part of the Republican coalition the Republicans are losing is not the base; its these moderate Republicans.” Even some of ‘the base’ which Mr Bush so actively played to, are growing restless. Richard Vigueurie, a veteran conservative activist, called on grassroots conservatives to stop acting as “an appendage of the Republican Party. We should concentrate instead on becoming a Third Force in American politics.” Republicans concede the permanent republican majority is in doubt. “We’re going to take a two year hiatus,” said New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It stalled out,” Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, told Fox News. “After this election it is a fifty fifty country…it remains a moderately conservative country.” If Mr Rove looks guilty of political hubris, his mastery of polling also looks in doubt. He openly called the election wrong. In mid May he told the American Enterprise Institute, “Republicans will have ten more seats.” Last week, as he touted his skills as a data junkie, confidently citing obscure tracking data, and predicting retention of both Houses as he kept up his jovial bonhomie, dispensing candy and punchy quips to reporters. Mr Todd said this week the political team at the White House had made strategic blunders, which they had not made in 2002 or 2004. “It’s going to take a ding a little bit, Rove’s reputation, but it’s not going to be the ding that it probably should be.” Mr Rove, a voracious reader of political history, should have paid more attention to his cautionary tale in his January speech of what can happen to a dominant party, when its thinking becomes ossified, an entitlement mentality takes over and political power becomes an end in itself. He had been referring to Democrats; he picked the wrong party.
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#2. To: TLBSHOW (#0)
Sure did. How could anyone miss what was going on except one who lives in a sheltered, gated environment. I wish more Repugnants had been sent home (given the boot).
#3. To: cwrwinger (#2)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestHe openly called the election wrong.
Replies to Comment # 2. KARL IS A TRAITOR LIKE BUSH AND TONY SNOW ARE
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