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Why is Karl Rove taking shots at Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell?
CS Monitor ^ | 10/28/2010 | David Scott

Posted on 10/28/2010 10:50:36 AM PDT by WebFocus

Karl Rove, Republican political strategist and the general behind George Bush's presidential victories, has been taking pot shots at some conservative favorites.

His latest target, former Alaska governor and Tea Party darling, Sara Palin.

Palin, Mr. Rove told Britain's The Daily Telegraph, lacked the "gravitas" to be president in 2012.

He dissed her new Alaska reality series as a bad political move.

“With all due candour, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office’,” Rove told the Telegraph.

QUIZ: How well do you know Sarah Palin? Take the quiz

Sarah Palin has been an influential player in the midterm elections, traveling and speaking around the United States and endorsing a range of candidates, often the same candidates endorsed by the Tea Party movement. But Palin has not declared herself a candidate in the 2012 presidential election.

How serious is this conservative rift between Rove and Palin?

Rove's views often represent the Republican establishment. And he's got a reputation for knowing how to win. George W. Bush called him "The Architect" of Bush's gubernatorial and presidential victories. Rove also guided the successful campaigns of several governors and members of Congress.

But he's critical of some of the Tea Party-backed candidates endorsed by Palin, including Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Senate race.

He's not a fan.

“I’ve met her. I wasn’t frankly impressed by her abilities as a candidate,” Rove said on Fox News last month. “One thing that O’Donnell is now going to have to answer in the general election that she didn't in the primary is her own checkered background.”

“There were a lot of nutty things she has been saying that don't add up,” Rove added.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: backstabberrove; benedictrove; canttrustrove; christineodonnell; karlrove; odonnell; operationleper; palin; romney; rove; rove4romney; saboteurrove; sarahpalin; tokyorove
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To: JohnG45
This, to me, makes Sean equally as complicit as Tokyo Rove.

He'll probably have Tokyo on his television show tonight, as well...Sean is about as 'conservative' as Castle or Lincoln Chaffee.

101 posted on 10/28/2010 12:40:17 PM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: WebFocus

He’s taking shots because these are two unelectable canidates. O’Connell is dropping like a rock. Her silly, “I am not a witch” ad and the rest have finished her off.

As for Palin, the American people made a mistake once voting for a candidate with a bloated ego, thin resume, and cult following. They aren’t likely to do it again.


102 posted on 10/28/2010 12:40:43 PM PDT by WestSylvanian
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To: LachlanMinnesota
I like the analogy of Reagan and his 20-mule-team Borax commercials. Clearly, Reagan did not have gravitas, right, Carl?

Reagan started out as an actor ... that's what he did before he got into politics. It was his day job, and he had to overcome it in order to be taken seriously.

Once he had established a solid political pedigree, with two full terms as governor, and a long stint of solid political commentary, he didn't play actor anymore.

Palin's evidently going the other direction -- using "actor" as a means of getting her face out in front of the electorate. Which is exactly what she shouldn't be doing.

The biggest knock against Palin is the perception -- eagerly promulgated by the media -- that she's an intellectual lightweight with no grasp of the issues. Even if that's not true, that's the perception she needs to be trying to change.

This is a political mistake.

103 posted on 10/28/2010 12:41:07 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: WebFocus

Rove is responsible for O’Donnell’s impending loss in Delaware.

He killed her momentum and cast doubt on her qualifications with his childish, spoiled brat rant the night she won the nomination.

Think about it - what was his objective? What could he hope to accomplish? She had already won the nomination so why didn’t he at the least keep his whining trap shut?

I believe Rove resents every Tea Party backed candidate who wants to uproot the corrupt two party system.

Yes, RINO’s and most establishment republicans want to take control from democrats but they definitely like the system. They are just waiting for their turn to take home the lion’s share of the loot once more.


104 posted on 10/28/2010 12:41:17 PM PDT by Iron Munro (This is our culture; fight for it. This is our flag; pick it up. This is our country; take it back.)
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To: WebFocus
Is this what GOP "moderates" mean when they claim that conservatives aren't team players? This is nothing new. The Warren Rudman wing of the party has made the backstabbing of conservatives an art.
105 posted on 10/28/2010 12:42:50 PM PDT by Major Matt Mason (I know more about Christine O'Donnell than I do about Barack Obama.)
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To: WestSylvanian
As for Palin, the American people made a mistake once voting for a candidate with a bloated ego, thin resume, and cult following. They aren’t likely to do it again.

lol.... I agree, but I have to admit that it'll be fun to watch the responses you get....

106 posted on 10/28/2010 12:43:06 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: WebFocus

He’s taking shots because these are two unelectable candidates and Rove is an experienced political operative who knows how to win. O’Connell is dropping like a rock. Her silly, “I am not a witch” ad and the rest have finished her off.

As for Palin, the American people made a mistake once voting for a candidate with a bloated ego, thin resume, and cult following. They aren’t likely to do it again. She’s polarizing and now grossly overexposed. She’s popping up everywhere. I’m tired of her frenetic manner and hectoring personality. Enough already.


107 posted on 10/28/2010 12:44:10 PM PDT by WestSylvanian
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To: WestSylvanian
He’s taking shots because these are two unelectable candidates and Rove is an experienced political operative who knows how to win....

Yeah he sure kicked our a** in 2006.


108 posted on 10/28/2010 12:47:56 PM PDT by McGruff (A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs)
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To: WebFocus

One thing to note.

Rove is a political image manager.

Sarah Palin is an image supernova. Her management of her own image is so much better than anything anybody has seen before that principles and practices of the entire field have been called into question.

She is herself. She doesn’t perseverate on reversing her own negatives. She ruthlessly uses the media underestimation of her strengths to find new opportunities to develop her own celebrity.

For Karl Rove, this just isn’t how you do things. He works and schemes to get “channels” on the side of his candidate (or party, or position). The notion that Sarah Palin can just blow right by the “channels” is a slap in the face of what he is and what he does. Sooner or later every candidate (and party, and position organization) is going to try to figure out how Palin does it rather than hiring Karl Rove or one of his peers to do it the way that Karl Rove does it.

In short:

Palin is a serious rival for image consultants as well as for politicians.

A good (best-selling, widely read) book, a ton of ink and air-time, some bold politicking, some catch-phrase speeches (to big audiences), a travel show on TV and Palin will have turned an apparent losing brand into the best-known conservative personality in the U.S.

Rove has taken some credit for doing something like that for Bush, but Palin’s achievement far outshines that and she’s still going strong.


109 posted on 10/28/2010 1:16:58 PM PDT by VaFarmer
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To: LachlanMinnesota

Boraxo Ronald & Patty Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnZaq7E4HOE&feature=related

Ronald Reagan for Boraxo Soap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJJG7j1zhM&feature=related

26-Year-Old Ronald Reagan in Hollywood 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCABHblTi80&feature=related


110 posted on 10/28/2010 1:24:46 PM PDT by luckybogey
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To: WebFocus

Carl who?


111 posted on 10/28/2010 1:38:10 PM PDT by New Jersey Realist (Congress doesn't care a damn about "we the people")
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To: WebFocus

112 posted on 10/28/2010 1:49:54 PM PDT by I see my hands (How's that ballot box thing working out for you?)
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To: Sarah Barracuda
Karl Rove is only Hannity's third best girlfriend. He loves The Dick Morris ... to this day on the Soros/Clinton Payroll, not to mention BOR, a Democrat operative from day one, (despite the "conservative" chatter, BOR's job is to keep middle aged Catholic white males who think Harry Truman and JFK are still alive, safely in the fold), and then comes Karl.

At times I think Hannity's brain is a life-support system for his hair. A beloved dork!

113 posted on 10/28/2010 1:55:38 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Revive The Poll Tax and Literacy Requirement for voter registration.)
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To: Mad_as_heck

Karl Rove is a “blue blood”? Where does he get that from? His gift shop manager mother? The dad who left him when he was a kid, or his geologist stepfather?


114 posted on 10/28/2010 2:20:11 PM PDT by The Pack Knight (Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Weep, and the world laughs at you.)
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To: The Pack Knight

Don’t get me wrong: Karl Rove is a good guy who has done many good things for us in the past. But he is also one of the people in the GOP establishment that brought us the “new tone” and other nonsense that has brought us to the edge of the brink.

His PUBLIC comments about the Tea Party, etc. - not all of which have been 100% wrong incidentally - have not been helpful to the GOP or conservative cause. We need to circle the wagons not conduct a circular firing squad.


115 posted on 10/28/2010 4:44:20 PM PDT by Mad_as_heck (The MSM - America's (domestic) public enemy #1.)
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To: WestSylvanian
As for Palin, the American people made a mistake once voting for a candidate with a bloated ego, thin resume, and cult following. They aren’t likely to do it again.

Horseradish!

Obama is a bad president not because he has a thin resume. Obama is a bad president because he is a Marxist.

And it's a Marxist that the American people won't elect again.

116 posted on 10/28/2010 5:58:49 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: WestSylvanian
He’s taking shots because these are two unelectable candidates and Rove is an experienced political operative who knows how to win.

A good Republican political operative doesn't bad mouth a Republican candidate after the Republican candidate wins the primary.

An good conservative operative doesn't bad mouth a conservative candidate after the conservative candidate wins the primary.

Rove's behavior is indefensible.

117 posted on 10/28/2010 6:09:41 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: r9etb
Once he had established a solid political pedigree, with two full terms as governor, and a long stint of solid political commentary, he didn't play actor anymore.

No. Reagan first tested the presidential waters in 1968 only two years after he became governor.

Palin's evidently going the other direction -- using "actor" as a means of getting her face out in front of the electorate. Which is exactly what she shouldn't be doing.

No. Palin doesn't have an acting job. Palin has been getting her face in front of the electorate mostly with political speeches and political appearances.

118 posted on 10/28/2010 6:23:07 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: WebFocus

Endorsed Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller, etc., all people who Rove wanted to lose and didn’t because of Palin. The GOP war isn’t over, it’s really just starting, the next two years are going to be very rocky ride.


119 posted on 10/28/2010 6:25:48 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: forgotten man

“Neither Rove nor Hannity graduated from college.”


Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that, and it sure explains a lot in my mind.
Of course, I don’t a college degree(s) in very high regard these days.
The Usurper has degrees, and he is as dumb as a rock.


120 posted on 10/28/2010 8:09:56 PM PDT by J Edgar
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