Rove outlines how to beat Clinton or Obama

[Hillwilllose]

Rove is 2-0 against the democrats. "The architect,” is well respected by serious political people. I guess the election is pretty much over with. Sorry folks.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/rove-p ... 01-16.html

Rove previews strategies against Clinton, Obama

By Sam Youngman

Karl Rove told a group of state Republican officials Wednesday that while the GOP primaries “are far from over,” each of the candidates can beat the top two Democrats — and the former White House aide then outlined a strategy how.

While Rove, the man President Bush called “the architect,” might have retired from the White House, he is clearly still very much engaged in the day-to-day mechanics of the presidential contests on both sides.

In an address to a group of state GOP executive directors at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) winter meeting, Rove outlined talking points for ways to defeat leading Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.). The former adviser to the president did not mention former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.).

On Clinton, Rove said the senator talks about fiscal responsibility but has introduced “$800 billion in new spending and the campaign is less than half over.”

Rove said that “the woman” wants to repeal all of Bush’s tax cuts, and that she can be targeted for voting against “troop funding” in the form of her votes against the Iraq war supplementals.

Specifically, Rove hit Clinton for what could have been her worst campaign moment last year, when she had trouble answering a question about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants at the Democratic debate in Philadelphia.

“You know, Sen. Clinton [has] got a problem with giving straight answers in this campaign,” Rove said. “I thought that was an incredible moment. In the course of 15 minutes, I counted her giving about four different answers.”

The Bush confidant also trotted out one of the lines of attack the RNC has already been working feverishly against Clinton, questioning why she and former President Bill Clinton will not release records from their time in the White House. This, according to Rove, “raises legitimate questions about what she’s hiding.”

Rove made it clear that most Republican attacks on Obama would focus on his “accomplishments and experience.”

“He got elected three years ago, and he [has] spent almost the entire time running for president,” Rove said.

Rove added that Obama has only passed one piece of legislation during his time in the U.S. Senate, and during his time in Illinois state Senate, Obama had “an unusual habit” of voting “present” instead of yes or no.

Rove also said that nonpartisan ratings show that Obama is more liberal than Clinton, which he said is “pretty hard to do.”

Time and again, however, Rove returned to the trump card he used in his successfully executed 2002 and 2004 elections, saying that neither Obama nor Clinton is prepared to protect the country from terrorists.

Rove served notice that Obama and Clinton would be targeted over how they vote on any Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation that comes before the Senate this year.

“Do they or do they not want our intelligence officials to be listening in on terrorists’ conversations in the Middle East who may … be plotting to hurt America?” Rove said.

He told the state officials that it would be their responsibility to find “creative and sustaining ways” to “talk about these contrasts.”

Rove also offered advice to whichever Republican candidate wins the GOP nomination.

He said the candidates had to first “create a sustaining narrative about themselves.” Then he said the candidate should “immediately engage” on the “kitchen table issues,” like healthcare, education, jobs and the economy.

Third, Rove said the GOP nominee has to show that he is serious about campaigning “aggressively in places where Republicans don’t usually campaign.” Rove said that includes among black, Latino, Asian and union voters.

“We’re going for everybody,” Rove said.

Lastly, Rove argued that the Republican candidate must show the electorate “that they understand the surge is working.” Rove said the candidate should get firmly behind the war effort, painting the Democratic nominee as “defeatist.”

[Doug]

Rove is 2-0 against the democrats. "The architect,” is well respected by serious political people. I guess the election is pretty much over with. Sorry folks.

DOUG
Except for the fact that Republicans nationwide got their asses kicked last time and Rove resigned in disgrace. Far from a "permanent conservative majority," his wedge strategy x10 is credited with ruining Republican chances for decades. Even fellow Republicans resent Rove's now-discredited tactics.

====A 2006 Column====
The upside for the Republican Party is that Karl Rove has had an excellent short term political strategy over the last six years. The downside is that it is a terrible long term strategy. I hope they enjoyed their "permanent majority" while it lasted.

Rove has three plays in his playbook:

1. Run to your base.
2. Create fear. Start a war. Rally around the flag.
3. Keep the companies and the crazies happy.

All three of these plays work. But they all eventually become untenable. Then they serve as an albatross around your neck for a long time to come. Let me explain.

1. Yes, if you energize your base, they will show up and vote. But when you do this, you risk alienating the rest of the country. You can play with fire for one or two elections, but eventually the rest of the country realizes they are not in your base, and hence, shit out of luck.

Then they get pissed.

Terri Schiavo might work really well with your base, but it gives 82% of the country the willies.

...Karl Rove might have seemed like a genius a couple of years ago as he laid down these well crafted short term strategies that allowed his boss to win two important elections. But when people realize he sold the house to pay for the party, they'll be pretty pissed about being left out in the cold. And then it will be the Republican party who will be left homeless, or I should say House-less.

How Karl Rove Is Going to Destroy the Republican Party
=============

See also:
September 2007 Atlantic Monthly
Karl Rove had the plan, the power, and the historic chance to remake American politics. What went wrong? by Joshua Green

The Rove Presidency

...Rove has always cast himself not merely as a campaign manager but as someone with a mind for policy and for history’s deeper currents—as someone, in other words, with the wherewithal not just to exploit the political landscape but to reshape it. At the Christian Science Monitor lunch, he appeared poised to do just that. It was already clear that Social Security privatization, a longtime Rove enthusiasm, was the first thing Bush would pursue in his second term. When things are going well for Rove, he adopts a towel-snapping jocularity. He looked supremely sure of his prospects for success.

But within a year the administration was crumbling. Social Security had gone nowhere. Hurricane Katrina, the worsening war in Iraq, and the disastrous nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court shattered the illusion of stern competence that had helped reelect Bush. What surprised everybody was how suddenly it happened; for a while, many devotees of the Cult of Rove seemed not to accept that it had. As recently as last fall, serious journalists were churning out soaring encomiums to Rove and his methods with titles like One Party Country and The Way to Win. In retrospect, everyone should have been focusing less on how those methods were used to win elections and more on why they couldn’t deliver once the elections were over.

The story of why an ambitious Republican president working with a Republican Congress failed to achieve most of what he set out to do finds Rove at center stage. A big paradox of Bush’s presidency is that Rove, who had maybe the best purely political mind in a generation and almost limitless opportunities to apply it from the very outset, managed to steer the administration toward disaster....
...

[Dardedar]

But within a year the administration was crumbling. Social Security had gone nowhere...

DAR
I can't imagine why. Watch Bush explain his Social Security plan with his trademark clarity and keen intellect (and remember he's no idiot).

"There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."
—George W. Bush, explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005

[Betsy]

Face it, Hilliwose and Galt, a Democratic candidate is going to win the next presidential election. No matter what. There isn't a decent candidate on the Republican side to begin with; the ones who are there are making a mockery of what's left of the Republican party. You've got Hucakbee declaring he wants to change the Constitution to fit with his religion!! What a JOKE. McCain - who most of you necons hated in the beginning is now starting to look the most "presidential" and he's not worth much. No one I know really even CARES who gets the Republican nomination because it's all moot anyway. Face reality and accept the fact that Clinton, Obama or Edwards is going to be your next president, and figure out how YOU can be a positive part of improving this country instead of continuing to tear it apart with negativity and lies like the neocons have done for the past seven years.

[Doug]

You've got Hucakbee declaring he wants to change the Constitution to fit with his religion!! What a JOKE.

DOUG
One pundit on MSNBC said that this blooper by Huckabee sinks his presidential chances.

[LaWood]

DOUG
One pundit on MSNBC said that this blooper by Huckabee sinks his presidential chances.

Dang it! Just when I thought we had a Rethuglican who could easily be impeached!

Galt and Hillo

Here's a source where money talks and bullshit walks. It's called the Iowa Electronic Markets and it has a 90% accuracy on forecasting national elections. It's a free market (get you aroused!) futures in who will win an election.

Symbol Bid Ask Last Low High Average
DEM08_WTA 0.611 0.624 0.611 0.611 0.614 0.613
REP08_WTA 0.386 0.389 0.391 0.386 0.391 0.387

WTA=Winner Take All
Note the two average prices for Jan 17 in bold.
Almost TWO to ONE ratio for Demos.

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/quotes/Pres08_Quotes.html