Rove’s reputation is a media creation. He has no real competence as a political manager.
Speaking of the 2000 election, his incompetence was demonstrated repeatedly in achieving that "skin of the teeth margin," to which you refer.
I have been an observer of what works in politics all of my life, as well as a student of what worked in politics before I was born. Rove not only bungled useful issue recognition during the campaign, he missed the chance of a political lifetime on election eve, by not having Bush on TV to take advantage of the last minute media smear, over the DUI Bush got in his early 20s.
Any half-witted politician should have seen the possibilities. The media drags in a red herring, the weekend before the election. Rove had he been even semi-competent would have seized the fact that millions of ordinary Democratic voters, would want to see how Bush responds--that guarantees a huge audience of people not planning to vote for the candidate--the ideal audience for picking up more votes at the direct expense of the opponent--text book politics.
Bush was no great speaker, but that could have been worked around. Here is the scenario:
Bush takes 20 to 30 seconds to explain that he--unlike the perfect Mr. Gore (with a mixture of sincerity and mild sarcasm) made mistakes in his youth. Then he speaks for 28 and a half minutes on his vision for America, now that he has grown up.
The moment is potentially even more effective than Nixon's "Little Dog Checkers," speech, which saved Nixon's career in the 1952 election; more effective than Harry Truman's election eve address in 1948.
Rove didn't have Bush on TV at all, election eve--certainly not promoted if he did, because I was certainly looking for the obvious.
Rove simply does not see issues in the true context--an absolutely fatal deficiency for one in his line of "work." Thus Bush looks stupid to anyone with an IQ over 115, by prattling about things like "no child left behind"; when every intelligent person, who ever attended grade school, knows that all children do not perform equally well on all subjects--and looking closer, on any subject.
Thus Bush speaks on immigration in terms that totally ignore the interests of American cultural continuity, and Tom Tancredo who tries to discuss contextual issues is overtly banned from the White House. Thus Bush continues & actually expands previous Leftwing Democratic initiatives, that wreak havoc on our economics, social values & functionality.
Rove is not a pure media creation, of course. He is an outrageous self-promoter; but a high school junior could manage a better campaign.