Yes, the GOP loss was all Rove's Fault. What he did wrong.

[McCamy Taylor]

It is really very simple. Karl Rove,we all know, is lazy and not very creative. He likes to repeat himself. If something worked before, he will keep doing it over and over again. Terra worked well for the GOP and Bush in 2002 and 2004, so he figured it would be a winner in 2006.

What he forgot are some important words. "Knowledge is the antidote to fear." Or, as Goebels would have said, had he been a good ole boy from Texas rather than a German Nazi "Don't count on scarin' folks with phoney-baloney Terra, if you don't have a lock down on the press."

After Katrina, it should have been pretty clear to Rove that a fair chunk of the mainstream media no longer kissed his nether regions. Indeed, MSNBC regularly disputed the White House's rationale for declaring war on Iran, and the New York Times' favorite hobby was revealing secret illegal administration practices. Both of these media outlets took delight in downplaying Terra alerts, pointing out the way they were used for political purposes, educating the public about the uses of Terra in distracting from real news.

I was startled when Rove trotted out Terra and Taxes as the centerpiece for his midterm election strategy. Was this some kind of bluff? Did he have some ultra-clever non-Terra strategy waiting in the wings for October? Maybe he had election fraud perfected to such an extent that it didnt matter what kind of campaign he ran?

No, it seems that dear old Karl just is not as smart as he pretends to be or as people think he is. A simple article by the NYT about some NIE documents was all that it took to completely shut down Terra as an effective October Surprise strategy, leaving him with a series of laughable commercials and a whirlwind tour by Bush 35% and Cheney 19% telling the base that America was doomed if they voted Democratic--something that the people who were going to listen to Bush and Cheney were not likely to do. Everyone else heard it as more of the lies which the now independent press had made sure that the American people knew all about.

Let this be a lesson to everyone, those who rely on Rove and those who wish he would go crawl under a rock. He is not an uber-genius political adviser. He is willing to break the law for his clients, if he thinks he won't get caught, so that makes him more effective than some other people who do the same job. He is a slick talker, but lots of hypo-manics have that personality trait. He has an inflated opinion of himself, also a hypo-manic trait. However, on a scale of moron to genius, he just pretty bright. And that tendency to repeat himself is going to land him in jail one day, because he is the perfect target for a sting.

[wakeme2008]

1. Very good take and I agree with you + a Nom nt

[madmusic]

2. Well said, and glad we are that he "stayed the course"

The day after the election Bush did a news conference, and when asked about how would deal with the Democrats after saying the terrorists wanted them to win, he said, "That was yesterday. This is today." Someone asked him the difference, and he said, "The election is over." It was amazingly candid.

For those who don't realize how propaganda is used, especially by this administration, that is a huge confession we need to exploit. Maybe it's on youtube.

[William769]

3. Wrong!

Don't give him all the credit. It was a concerted effort by the whole damn Republican party!

[bklyncowgirl]

4. Karl Rove is a one trick pony

He has a formula for winning that is really quite simple.

1. Get the conservative base excited and organized so that they vote in droves. Wedge issues. Wedge issues, Wedge issues.

2. Smear your opponent by any means at your command ethical or unethical legal or illegal to turn off swing voters. Attack ads, robo calls, swift-boating.

3. Make it easy for your people to vote and hard for your opponent's supporters. Caging lists, too few computers in urban areas.

It's always worked in the past so why not repeat it over and over again.

The problem is that if you repeat a trick often enough it becomes stale. "Swiftboat" is now a verb and many voters are aware that when some supposedly independent group attacks a candidate that someone on the other side is pulling the strings. People wanted to make a change and this time were willing to look past the slime.

[wilt the stilt]

5. Dean simply outsmarted him

Dean worked his way through Med school and became a Doctor. This not only takes intelligence but discipline and a strategy to look 20 years ahead or delaying immediate gratification. Rove was a collage dropout and it shows in his short term strategy.He lacked the discipline to finish college. Dean's 50 state strategy is a long term strategy to allow democrats to dominate for a long time. Rove's strategy for expanding your base and using wedge issues is at best a short term strategy. It lasted 6 years and probably has doomed the Republicans to minority status for a long time