Bush delegates. Electoral politics he delegates to Rove. Bush trusts Rove, and does not have the time, energy or inclination to do the kind of district-by-district, legislation-by-legislation analysis required to run the political operation. Bush lays out the political goals, and his staff makes recommendations as to how to get there. Over years, he has come to deeply respect and trust Rove's advice. So on CFR, he followed Rove's advice. Politically, Rove is probably mostly correct as far as he went. This is the same political shop that destroyed the Democrat party in Texas, and you can see signs that this is working to some degree on a national scale. Ultimately I think this was a bad call because Rove has not seen that this decision reinforces the conservative template: "we elect them and then they betray us." A larger percentage than Rove calculates will lose/has lost heart. Conservatives are not a typical constituency group. Democrats can easily buy back constituency groups they've betrayed. Conservatives can't be bought. It will take far more time and effort for Rove to make amends than he realizes; and he will not ever be able to fully make amends. I do not believe the numbers of the disaffected will be enough to affect a single election. However, it is a political fault line that Rove will have to work around for the next seven years.