The myth of Karl Rove's genius

[Paragon]

Yet ANOTHER Bush campaign move explodes in their faces - namely, the use of 9/11 imagery in their newest ads.

Given the complete bumbling of the past couple of months, I fail to see how "Bush's Brain" was ever lauded as anything but as empty as his boss's.

So...has KKKarl lost his "magic touch", or is it simply a case of the policies of the chicken hawks coming home to roost?

[Stephanie]

1. Karl Rove = Not a Genius

Never was. Certainly has proved it now. Everything he does backfires.

[JuniorPlankton]

2. How else can you explain

that the lousy piece of sh*t was elected (moved in) into the White House?

I would say it was against all odds!

[lovedems]

5. A majority of the people weren't hip to KKKarl's MO.

Karl isn't smart enough to come up with another way to market the clown and people are on to him. It is obvious his past tactics are not going to work this time. People know how he operates.

[ithacan]

30. "Mayberry Machiavellis"

That's a perfect description of Rove I think.

Machiavellian, in the sense that he'll do anything to hold on to power.

Mayberry-ian in the sense that the guy (and the Bush regime as a whole) is incredibly narrow minded, provincial, and has really bad judgement...

These are thanks to DU user jean, who posted them in another thread:


White House Decries Ex-Aide's Criticism

The Associated Press
Monday, December 2, 2002; 11:15 AM

WASHINGTON –– President Bush's spokesman dismissed as "baseless and groundless" a former aides' criticism that the White House values politics over domestic policy and has failed to produce the president's promised "compassionate conservative" agenda.

John J. DiIulio Jr., who quit his White House domestic policy post in August 2001, said in an interview with Esquire magazine: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: complete lack of a policy apparatus.

"What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavelli's ," he was quoted as saying.

>> snip

In the magazine interview, DiIulio called senior White House adviser Karl Rove "enormously powerful, maybe the single most powerful person in the modern, post-Hoover era ever to occupy a political- adviser post near the Oval Office."

>> snip

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


The DiIulio Letter
CONFIDENTIAL
To: Ron Suskind
From: John DiIulio
Subject: Your next essay on the Bush administration
Date: October 24, 2002

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2002/021202_mfe_diiulio_1.htm...

>> snip

This gave rise to what you might call Mayberry Machiavelli's—staff, senior and junior, who consistently talked and acted as if the height of political sophistication consisted in reducing every issue to its simplest, black-and-white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible.

>> snip

Like college students who fall for the colorful, opinionated, but intellectually third-rate professor, you could see these 20- and 30-something junior White House staff falling for the Mayberry Machiavelli's. It was all very disheartening to this old, Madison-minded American government professor. Madison aside, even Machiavelli might have a beef. The West Wing staff actually believed that they could pass the flawed bill, get it through conference, and get it to the president's desk to sign by the summer. Instead, the president got a political black eye when they could easily have handed him a big bipartisan political victory.

(from thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=843090&mesg_id=843396


The lesson here: These guys ARE incompetent, because they are so limited but do not know they are limited. This is a huge plus for us: arrogance and overconfidence.

[Raster]

3. anybody looks good when you have enough money to prop you up...

...not to mention a well-oil PR machine cranking out the memes left and right. kkkarl rrrove is all smoke and mirrors, akin to all hat and no cattle.

[West Coast Democrat]

4. Rove was involved in Bush Sr.'s Re-Election Campaign

Doesn't that prove he's no genius?

[The Blue Knight]

6. Blah. XanthaS beat me to the punch!

Yea, George HW Bush lost, and he had 91% approval ratings at one time.

I've always advocated this to my friends...Karl Rove is no genius. We've given him WAY too many props on this board.

The Gay Amendment Ban looked like a good way to rejuvinate his base...but...talking to Rethug friends in my county (my county has never gone democratic in a Presidential race...EVER) ... it doesn't seem to be working.

I'm reading more and more anti-Bush letters in the paper, so I think the tide is definately turning...

[West Coast Democrat]

17. Yes... And I don't think any of Rove's ideas are very brilliant

The administration "got lucky" with 9-11, and has milked everything out of it that they possibly could....but now the public has grown weary. Rove and Co. are foolish if they think they can continue on this theme. Yes, 9-11 was recent...but it is also far enough in the past. Even those who were the sentimental flag-wavers after 9-11 are now looking toward the future, not focusing on past tragedy.

[radwriter0555]

12. bush senior had to toss the election or else he would have ended up in

Fort Leavenworth.

It was his only out, or else he would not have been able to genuinely pardon the iran contra 7 and halt the congressional hearings.

[yellowcanine]

25. Was Rove involved in the decision to feature Pat Buchanan at the 92

convention? Seems as if that might have been something Rove would have thought up.

Don't forget, Rove was the author of the "Rats" ad and probably behind the purloined debate tape that was sent to the Gore campaign as well. He was just lucky it didn't backfire on him (We can thank Louis Freeh's coverup for that).

[TheFarseer]

7. you give the people too much credit

If the American people saw through him, his approval rating would be in single digits. There's still way too many people saying, "Bush took care of business after 9/11"

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Atman]

9. The Peter Principle

you rise to your own level of incompetence.

I think we are seeing them all massively Peter out. They were fine political hacks in Jerkwater, Texas. But now Bush has to do more than kill pleading women on death row, but he simply is not capable.

The Peter Principle.

[Redleg]

10. Rove's arrogance will be his undoing.

Rove's belief in his own brilliance will cause him to over-reach and to make mistakes because he won't take the time to make decisions based on realistic scenarios. Piss on him and his fat f@cking face.

[radwriter0555]

11. I think rove got his hands on too much viagra and cocaine and he's losing

his mind.

[Hoosier Democrat]

13. Excellent Point, Redleg!!

Rove was a lot like the Wizard of Oz, all image and no substance. Let's debunk some of the Rove Mythology:

1. Rove got Dumbya elected: NO Despitebeing selected rather than elected, Dumbya is in the hite House today because Al Gore ran the second worst presidential campaign of the 20th Century. (Dukakis is still the crown prince of incompetence there). Had Gore listened to people besides Naomi Wolfe, he might not have come across to the average american as some sterile Android who could re-tool himself on a dime.

2. Rove is responsible for the Republican gains in the 2002 Elections: FALSE Once again, Rove was in the right place at the right time. If we would have had REAL Democratic leadership in Congress instead of the pants-pissing, spineless duo of Gephardt and Daschle, we might have said "NOT SO FAST THERE!" at IWR time. Instead, Dick and Tom bowed down to kiss Rove's ass and gave them everything they wanted. Plus,the GOP did make some good strategic choices in a couple of races (Talent in Missouri and Coleman in Minnesota. I AM NOT praising these two, but they were good choices for the GOP instead of some rabid ob-Dornan overt Nazi)

3. With Rove at the helm, Dumbya is unbeatalbe. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.100 million may buy airtime, but it can't buy you crdebility. Of course, Kerry could flub the campaign or the economy could come roaring back by early summer (and, theoretically, monkeys could fly out of my butt)and then things could change.

[Stephanie]

14. Karl Rove, probably the first person to serve so high up in the WH

without a college degree. Don't you think someone in his position, with his money and advantages, would have managed to take a few courses over the years and at least acquire a B.A.? He is a college dropout. He is just another FRAUD in the Bush WH, posing as someone who knows what he's doing.

Rove has been guiding the younger Bush's political trajectory since the candidate's first shaky press conferences in November 1993, when he announced he was running against the popular incumbent, Democratic Gov. Ann Richards.

A 48-year-old political junkie who has attended nearly half a dozen colleges but never got a degree, Rove now teaches graduate students at the University of Texas.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/06/16/advisors/index1.html

[Wapsie B]

15. That's amazing.

A political hack without even a BA teaching in a grad school. Not just any grad school either. UT is no slough-off college. Goes to show you what inside connections can get you.

[Stephanie]

21. Not only that, but he's running the country!

Couldn't finish college - now he calls all the shots in the Oval Office! He's de facto leader of the Free World. Shouldn't he have some credentials?

[leyton]

27. It's not that he couldn't finish college.

I think he dropped out to work on campaigns or for the National Young Republicans or some such organization. Sadly, his credentials are in his success getting an first-class idiot elected.

[Stephanie]

28. Well we'll never know whether he could or not

Since he didn't bother to try.

[Buns_of_Fire]

16. Well, KKKaren Hughes signed on for the '04 campaign

And she's already out there defending KKKarl's first screwup of the new campaign. I think she'll be doing a lot of damage control in the next eight months. (So much for Spending More Time With Her Son, I guess.)

[eissa]

18. I was one who always thought of him as a genius

You have to admit...anyone who can take a dim-witted, arrogant, SOB like *, have him run against a popular VP in a time of peace and prosperity, and "win", could only be described as a genius of an evil sort.

[catmandu57]

19. Some of kkkarl's greatest hits

Backdrops made in china
Commander codpiece's carrier landing
premature ejaculation victory speech
Plastic turkey
naming NYC as the reptilian convention
using 11 sept. as a backdrop
just to name a few
Yep, that karl is a fucking genius.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

20. Rove is no genius, that's for sure.

Much as the Repubs would like us to believe that, the reality is that Rove is no different from any other political hack.

[Junkdrawer]

22. Rove's "genius" always shows much later in the campaign - usually...

in the last weeks. And by "genius" I mean an uncanny way of using dirty tricks to make your candidate's weaknesses seem like your opponent's dirty politics.

[West Coast Democrat]

23. Things are looking out of control right now

If they keep underestimating the American public, I don't see how-come the fall-they're going to be able to frame the debate they way they want.

[northernsoul]

24. The Law of Diminishing Returns

Rove has nothing to offer of substances, just a few sleazy gimmicks that are now officially past their point of usefulness. I'm starting to think that B*sh hasn't actually been holding his fire like he says he has - I think they're completely out of ideas on how to prop up his poll numbers through cheap gimmicks.

I'm daring to hope that the B*sh presidency is now circling the drain.

[LibertyorDeath]

26. Kick

[cybildisobedience]

29. amdst all this talk of Rove's genius, it's important to remember...

...the role the media has played in all this. A while back, there was a thread on DU about who had the better political mind: James Carville or Karl Rove. I, and many others, voted for Carville since he was able to pull off a victory in Clinton's '92 campaign against a media that had already squandered hundreds of hours of air time on bimbo eruptions, his "draft dodging," his marital problems, and his supposedly checkered past.
Rove and company have been aided by a media that either actively campaigned for Bush by savaging Gore, or stood by while Bush and Co. pulled off the most outrageous acts, such as stealing the last election or stonewalling the 9-11 investigation, or lying their way into a war that didn't have to be fought (and is costing American soldiers' lives every day).
It's not that hard to be considered a genius when the media aids and abetts you.

[BillZBubb]

31. Genius is the wrong word

Rove is not a genius in any sense. But, he has run some successful campaigns (his guy got into office) despite having to sell a below average product. To his advantage he had the brand name (Bush) and he was selling it in areas where folks aren't too bright and love the brand. And he has unlimited money.

We had better not underestimate Rove and what he is capable of. Nor should we overestimate the ability of the public to see through the propaganda. After all, the public to a large degree bought into the Iraq war in spite of all the evidence against it.

This is going to be one tough fight and the odds are against us.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

32. Just received Bushy's Hotmail account

here it is http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/bushmail.html