Posted on 04/08/2011 2:08:46 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Washington (CNN) Furloughed jobs, interrupted services, and the potential economic ramifications aside, top Republican strategist Karl Rove is warning a government shutdown is likely to strengthen President Obama's hand as he heads into his reelection campaign.
In his weekly polling memo, Rove notes the 1995 government shutdown bolstered President Clinton's image in the eyes of voters as a strong leader, positioning him for a relatively easy reelection victory one year later.
"The shutdowns helped improve Clinton's political standing, boosting both his approval rating and perceptions of him as a strong leader," writes Rove. "At the time, poll watchers noted that, 'the only time Clinton's ratings have improved substantially the past year as a result of his actions has been when he adopted a strategy of confrontation.'"
Rove reports Clinton's approval rating saw nearly a double-digit jump during the 1995 government shutdown and continued to climb as the reelection campaign began in earnest.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
I also think there is much to be said about choosing ones battles. Any GOP budget victory at this point has to be viewed as potentially pyrrhic if obama is reelected.
Of greater importance is seeing to it that obama is a one term president. The Senate will likely go republican in 2012. If the republicans can hold onto the House in 2012 and elect a republican president, the coast will then be clear to go at the budget with abandon.
I agree. I could not even vote that year. I think you'll see that's the main reason.
RINO snorts from Rove.
I swear, if Hannity has this ruling class drone on his show one more time, I’m going to let him know that I’m putting him on permanent boycott.
Rove is a disgusting pig. He should have been advising the Titanic how to avoid icebergs with his track record.
Rove has his own agenda. Nobody really knows what is and he isn’t telling.
Rove has his own agenda. Nobody really knows what is and he isn’t telling.
That’s Karl ( Marx ) Rove.
RINO snorts from Rove.
Clinton wasn’t a great leader and he wasn’t a conservative leader, but he had some leadership skills—especially in his second term and as governor. Obama has nothing. He is actually the “absence of leadership”. Clinton had an agenda and a vision, however misguided it was. Obama is just a puppet who keeps looking behind the curtain for one of his masters to tell him what to do next.
BS Karl. They held all three branches of government and could have passed a budget back in the Fall but they didn’t. The Republican house did and the Rat senate rejected it. It’s on them.
Just to be on the safe side, Repugs should spend an extra few trillion. Wouldn’t want to make the zombies mad.
Rove totally screwed the country by not engaging the hysteria and lies of the left. He did not want to lower himself to fighting for what the President was doing.
I can not believe he is still yapping. No shame.
Proof that Juan Williams is an affirmative-action liberal and thus -- like Teh One -- in over his head.
The Tea Party *are* the polls as evidenced by the last national election, and the events in Wisconsin (the Unions in a union-dominated state, $3.5 million in ads including ads falsely linking Prosser to letting off child molesters, voter fraud in the 10,000 votes range in Madison, and they still didn't win).
Cheers!
Rove’s a smart guy, but I think he’s wrong about this. America was much more bucolic 15 years ago than it is now. There is much more political awareness and a lot less slimestream media control over the message.
I guess Rove, too, has forgotten November ‘10.
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