WP: Midterm Vote May Define Rove's Legacy

[kskiska]

Big Losses Could Dim Aura of Bush Adviser

Monday, October 30, 2006; A01

By many calculations, Democrats are ready to make big gains in the midterm elections, enough to take over the House and possibly the Senate. But White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten says there is one reason he is feeling upbeat amid so much Republican gloom.

"I believe Karl Rove," Bolten said in an interview in his West Wing office Friday. "Karl Rove, somewhere inside that massive brain of his, has figured out the political landscape more clearly than the entire collection of conventional-wisdom pundits and pollsters in the entire city of Washington."

That was true for two elections in a row, in 2002 and 2004, and President Bush's senior adviser has insisted to West Wing colleagues and party faithful alike that it will be again. But Rove is just eight days from having his genius designation revoked -- or upgraded to platinum status.

Even within Rove's own party, expectations are widespread that the Nov. 7 elections will mark a repudiation for the base-rallying, contrast-drawing brand of politics with which he and Bush have been so closely aligned. But it is a mark of the particular place Rove holds in the Washington psyche that even the most exuberant Democrats are wondering why he seems so confident.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900753.html

[Tom Joad]

1. A big defeat Nov 7th would be worse for Rove than an indictment

If it is as crushing as we hope, then Rove will be throughly humiliated.

[FightingIrish]

2. Over 3,000 American heroes wasted will be his legacy.

These valiant soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen waill have died for nothing more than Rove's cynical world view.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Yeah, right ...

"Karl Rove, somewhere inside that massive brain of his, has figured out the political landscape more clearly than the entire collection of conventional-wisdom pundits and pollsters in the entire city of Washington."

Rove is such a genius, his 'boy' has an approval rating consistently below his own IQ (if that's even possible), and will go down in history as the jerk who entangled the US in Iraq (already dubbed the worst military blunder in the nation's history), the guy who plunged the country into record-breaking debt, the idiot who lost an entire American city to a hurricane while he played the geetar, the jerk whose official biography will be entited "Worst.President.Ever."

Way to go, Rove! What a fuckin' genius!

[napi21]

4. Karl Rove doesn't have a legacy to protect!

He's a damn political consultant for God sake! he'sno mone than asmall footnote in history!

[w4rma]

5. Rove's legacy of evil, corruption and policy failure. (nt)

[countmyvote4real]

6. J. McCarthy, J.E. Hoover, K. Rove: Let the legacy begin. n/t

[keopeli]

7. I made reference to this in a post yesterday about being ready for anything

"George Bush's legacy rides on this election. If he wins, he will retire undefeated and cast as the most successfully electable President and boon to the Republicans in history next to Lincoln. Iraq will be a sideshow in the never-defeated Bush's by-line...

Should the Democrats take both houses of Congress, the historic storyline can shift by re-casting the Iraq War as being Bush's "undoing". Whereas the 02 election was about creating the historical events as they wished, the 06 election is about Bush's biggest blunder - Iraq.

Bush and his entourage can not afford to lose this election. They have had three opportunities to perfect their methods. While irregular (if not illegal) manipulation of the election mechanism has certainly occurred, their chief success has been in voter turnout. They have plugged themselves into a system of blind loyalty as a means to power with businesses, churches, and country clubs.

The reality is that the election will be won by whomever has the best mechanism for voter turnout. Mid-term elections yield notoriously low participation from Americans, which makes efforts at voter turnout much easier to accomplish."

link