Four More Years Attributed to Rove's Strategy...

washingtonpost.com/ ^ | Sunday, November 7, 2004 | Dan Balz and Mike Allen

[crushelits]

As Air Force One made its final approach to Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday afternoon, White House senior adviser Karl Rove juggled a telephone, a pen and a piece of paper, anxiously copying down the first wave of exit polls that showed President Bush trailing John F. Kerry.

"I saw this look on his face and then the phone died," said White House communications director Dan Bartlett. "He said, 'Not good.' " It was, Bartlett added, "like a punch in the gut."

At that point, years of planning and preparation appeared in doubt. Skeptics in the Democratic and Republican parties believed the strategy created by Rove and the rest of Bush's team was about to come crashing down.

Had that happened, it would have put Bush in the history books with his father for having been denied a second term after achieving a 90 percent approval rating, and relegated Rove to the long list of strategists whose theories and assumptions have been undone by the voters.

"I was sick," Rove said in an interview as he talked about those moments on the president's plane. "But then angry when I started seeing the numbers. None of them made any sense."

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Baloney. The much maligned Evangelicals put Bush back in office, not Karl Rove and his policies. He pushes some mighty unpopular stuff and many of us were angered by it. This man can't disappear from the scene fast enough, imho.

[Atchafalaya]

Yep. I hope he is still around in 08.

[Atchafalaya]

You have to also have to include the fact that Kerry was a sonorous sham.

[Atchafalaya]

Put some ice on it!

[cricket]

This Election should never have even gotten close to 'up for grabs'.

No way; no how; but Karl Rove's strategy; along with GW's consent; made it precisely that.

I am ever grateful that we won;

. . . but we did NOT have to suffer these past few months by watching a great American and a great President being dragged down by a treasonous; anti-American; anti-military; anti-values, radical-Left candidate. . .

. . .who could have been; should have been; squashed politically, like a bug on a suicide mission when he first appeared.

[cricket]

"I agree with your observation. Rove theory alone would have lost. It took: - SBVFT & POWs (that Rove would have preferred be quiet) - Evangelicals self-organizing (beyond any Rove effort) - Astonishing Kerry gaffes that Rove could not control - Usama bin Laden injecting himself into the campaign - and a bunch of other stuff at the margin that was not part of The Architect's grand strategy"

Think we should thank as well; Terry McAullife; the Hollywierd Left; and Sydney Blumenthal who, along with Michael Moore; perhaps encouraged London's 'The Guardian' to exorcise in the most positive way; the Ohio voters.

[goldstategop]

It all begins and ends with the candidate. A campaign staff is simply an extension of the candidate. The best campaign people in the world can't help a candidate win if he doesn't possess the qualities that make him a winner. LIKE DUH. So its not the eevil Karl Rove manipulating anything from the center of a spider's web. President Bush was a good candidate who ran a superb campaign. He deserves the credit.

[ottothedog]

I live in St. Louis County. The county as whole voted by about 9 points for sKerry. The part of the county I live in probably voted by 25 points for sKerry.

[CaraM]

I like your 'About Page'. Great combination of visuals. :)

[crushelits]

That's why the'll never get anywhere.

Lets just flush them as the Johns were flushed.