So the Republican win that saw Bush in the White House for another term had all to do with the Democratic Party’s weak, wishy-washy political campaign and Kerry’s blunders, missteps and spineless showing on the campaign trail than Karl Rove’s brilliance or genius. Then came Hurricane Katrina and President Bush abysmal handling of the political aspects of this disaster. Rove, who was supposed to be the political maestro, either gave his boss bad advice or was so off his game that he allowed the doo-doo to hit the fan and then going into damage control mode. The fallout of Bush’s Katrina bungling is still being felt all across the country.
And if these political screw-ups were taking a toll on a man who famously says that he’s “Bush’s Brain,” there was nothing publicly to show it. Yes, Rove would have one more shot to prove his genius or his days would be numbered. Last November’s mid-term elections was the make or break event for Rove. The GOP had come to rely on his expertise and the party faithful had high expectations that he was going to pull the rabbit out of the hat again.
Still, the war in Iraq that Rove used to sell the American public on the GOP’s strong foreign policy and security credentials was going horribly wrong. So dusting off the Republican playbook Rove resorted to the usual tried and tested strategy of stoking the fear bogeyman and painting the Democrats as weak on national security issues and equating a democratic win as favoring terrorism. For all his genius Rove never saw what was coming and he doggedly stuck to the old playbook’s rules. The end result? The GOP got creamed. Americans got tired of his crap.
Today, President Bush job approval ratings are in the toilet. The war in Iraq is a complete failure, a gross, ill-advised misadventure built on a foundation on lies, falsehoods and untruths that is taking the lives of America’s youth. Afghanistan is becoming more and volatile, America’s credibility around the world has been badly tarnished and the Republican Party is hobbled by scandal after scandal.
One is left no other conclusion that Karl Rove has given his president suspect and bad advice during his tenure as Deputy White House Chief of Staff. No other explanation is possible. Karl Rove is directly tied to the legacy of President George Bush which is one of failure, deceit and incompetence. If Karl Rove, who became a close friend and political strategist for President Bush from the time he [Bush] was the governor of Texas and if, as we are told, he was the mastermind of both presidential elections, then it stands to reason that he cannot divorce himself from the fact that his actions have caused one of the worst administrations to be visited upon the American people in recent history.
In the end Karl Rove is no political genius but a loyal Bush flunky, an ambitious, though limited man, who got lucky and with the help of the US Supreme Court had his candidate installed as President of the United States. History will not be kind to Karl Rove.
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