Rove's Raving Clinton Obsession By Clarence Page

[Demeter]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/08/roves_raving_clinton_obsession.html


Is Republican strategist Karl Rove attacking Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton because he really wants to help her win the Democratic presidential nomination? Do Democrats sound paranoid when they suspect that he is? If so, as the old saying goes, that doesn't mean somebody is not out to get them.

I have a slightly different theory. As Rove departs his long-held post at the ear of President Bush, I think his recent bash-Hillary tour of media interviews is the first Band-Aid in his attempts to patch up the damage he left behind, both to his party's prospects and his president's legacy.

After all, with Republicans largely dispirited and in disarray in their search for a clear front-runner in the presidential race, what better way to pull the forces together than to wave their long-time foe Hillary Clinton in their faces?

On three Sunday morning talk shows, Rove predicted that the New York senator will win the nomination, "She enters the general election campaign with the highest negatives of any candidate in the history of the Gallup Poll," he said.

When asked why he was helping Clinton by saying she would headline the ticket, Rove said: "Didn't know that I was. Don't think that I am."

.....

To begin that recovery (his and Bush's reputation) process, Rove offers the specter of a President Hillary Clinton as one would frighten a mouse with a rubber snake. Negative campaigns work sometimes. But as Rove should know by now, sooner or later people want to know what you are for, not just whom you are against.


Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in urban issues. He is based in Washington, D.C. E-mail: [e-mail]

[Brigid]

1. The Repugs are afraid of Hillary.

And they should be. My preference is still Obama, but Hillary is smart, experienced, and more than capable of scrapping with the right-wing extremists she's been dealing with for years. And I think the American people will like her. If nothing else, could anything be worse than what we have now?

[bemildred]

2. Rove is a moron and an asshole. "By their works shall ye know them." nt