The Rove, O'Donnell Strategry (Shameless and Useless Vanity)

Vanity oh Vanity

[mnehring]

Like many of you, I am very concerned about the rumblings of the Republican power base, specifically Karl Rove. They seem to be sending some very negative messages towards Tea-Party candidates like O'Donnell. In addition what what we've seen, I believe they are floating negative comments to see how people react.

However, I have been thinking- is there a different strategy behind this?

First, about Rove- what do we know?

1. Unlike what he is portraying with O'Donnell, Rove has never had a problem working with candidates with baggage. The financial charges against O'Donnell are minuscule compared to the accusations against Bush.

2. Rove has, in the past, supported the under-dog Conservative over the establishment Republican. A great example of this is his early on support of Rubio even when common sense hinted Crist would walk away with it.

3. Rove is very much a state-by-state strategist, always working messages to how the state trends.

Some other things we know are:

4. Delaware is a very Blue state.

5. O'Donnell has massive grass-roots support, with independents trending towards her.

6. No one can deny the wave of the tea-party candidates recently.

With those thoughts- what if Rove has a completely different strategy.

1. He knows that O'Donnell is running in a blue state, so his strategy is to help position herself as not party of the Republican establishment but as an average person- thus appealing to more than just Republican voters but also disgruntled Dems.

2. He can't deny that a LOT of the tea-party movement is against the establishment. By making her appear to be an anti-establishment with a common opponent of both Establishment Republicans and Democrats- it fires up the tea-party and average Joe base behind her. No one can deny that this opposition to her by the establishment has fired up the base- look at her donations in the past two days.

3. Rove and Rush are close friends. Before this primary, Rush was strongly pushing for O'Donnell and already working the message about her being opposed to the Republican establishment. All of these messages have worked together well.

[mnehring]

Is Rove a weasel bastard or could he still be a magnificent bastard playing the game better than we think?

[RummyChick]

[Pollster1]

Is Rove a weasel bastard or could he still be a magnificent bastard playing the game better than we think?

I would be impressed if you were right, but I don't think that Rove is that clever a strategist. Nor do I think he is that bad at reading people - the words he chose would hurt O'Donnell with any voter who took him seriously.

[miss marmelstein]

Well, if it is the latter, it completely flopped, lol.

[roses of sharon]

No, Rove’s candidate for 12 could be running against Palin.

This is prob the beginning of a primary fight.

[mnehring]

Is that Castle that Gollum-Reid is holding?

[ClearCase_guy]

My first comment on this whole affair was long these lines -- although not nearly as thorough and well-written as your comment.

But I don't think so. I certainly think Rove is helping O'Donnell very much and making it likely that she will win. But I believe Rove is doing this by accident. I consider him a pure Republican establishment guy and I think he is the enemy.

[9YearLurker]

Bingo! The long, hairy but well-coiffed arm of Dirty-Tricks Romney?

[Enchante]

For the “magnificent bastard” tactic to be useful I’d think he’d have distanced himself with words not so useful to the ‘Rats

He was too personal and vicious and specific, and now his words will be used against O’Donnell during the next 7 weeks

I think you pose an intriguing possibility, but if that’s what he was up to he went way overboard

[mnehring]

Well, if it is the latter, it completely flopped, lol.

Did it? She went from polling behind by -25 to -11 in one day and she went from raising only $50K through the entire primary to almost $1Million in one day.

[Wissa]

Is Rove a weasel bastard or could he still be a magnificent bastard playing the game better than we think?

Rove is going to voluntarilly allow his reputation to be totally destroyed in the minds of most conservatives just to help out a politician he was actively trying to defeat not long before?

Sorry. I'm not buying that.

[RummyChick]

Coons. Reid said Coons was “my pet”.

[RangerM]

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Rove didn’t favor her, because he didn’t (doesn’t) think she can win.

[mnehring]

Now that’s funny.

[TSgt]

He was too personal and vicious and specific, and now his words will be used against O’Donnell during the next 7 weeks

Spot-on.

[9YearLurker]

That’s not the behavior of any political supporter or friend. That’s someone doing a dirty deed for a dirty professional purpose.

[Fiji Hill]

But I don't think so. I certainly think Rove is helping O'Donnell very much and making it likely that she will win. But I believe Rove is doing this by accident.

Given the fact that Christine O'Donnell's opponent is apparently a hard-core Marxist, it is truly incredible that Rove is doing all he can to make her lose.

[miss marmelstein]

No, all I’m saying is - I don’t agree he did it on purpose. No one would blow up their career like that for one candidate. I watched the interview live (I’m sure you did too), it was a genuine meltdown.

[Scythian]

I'll let this serve as my answer ...

[Question Liberal Authority]

The Democrats went off the deep end in the Bush years by deluding themselves into thinking that Rove was some sort of evil scheming genius, instead of a basic political operative. They seriously thought that Rove controlled the weather, for crying out loud.

I would humbly suggest we don't do the same. Rove said what he said because that's what he honestly believes.

What I don't think the Roves of the world are taking into account is the fact that Castle could have won and then pulled an Arlen Specter / Jim Jeffords and flat-out joined the Democrat party when the offers started pouring in.

Also, they're missing the larger point. If the Republicans don't want this sort of thing to happen again, they better start nominating people who would be more palatable to the tea partiers.