I like Rove but have always been cautious of the praise he gets as a genius by the MSM--doesn't seem to me they'd give a Repub that praise willingly, unless they were setting him up for a fall.
Let's put it this way: Whether this was intended or not is immaterial. Our cause in Iraq is just, and the democrats are just like Peter Lorre in M: They just can't HELP themselves!!!! When they see a chance to let their inner commie out, they can't resist, and BANG! the American people see the explosion and pull back. I think they will continue to do so once they digest the dems's rabid Pull Out to Insure Defeat strategy.
Pulling out now would be a complete disaster. The dems know this but they don't care, because they think that Kerry and Hillary and their crowd will have an easy time of it at cocktail parties with UN officials. Pulling out would toss in the dumper all our military families have sacrificed, all the effort and $$$. There is simply NO way a libocrat can argue that pulling out would not mean the anti-US forces would be emboldened.
Bush and company know this, and for all their flaws, they believe their cause is right. So they push on. And as with taxes, Bush will be proved right again. Even to some here.