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Karl Rove on how Donald Trump's birther obsession hurt his presidency chances, Obama's Paul Ryan fixation and 'hot mic' comments and more.

On Fox News last night, Republican political operative extraordinaire Karl Rove discussed the possibility of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016. "I suspect she will be a candidate. I suspect she is going to think about being a candidate in 2016, and we'll know by about 2014. If she leaves the [Obama] Administration in 2014 or 2015, in order to give herself a chance to write a book about her experiences and reconnect with the grassroots, then she might entertain it." And what would be the clue to Clinton's intentions if there is no Obama administration in 2014? Rove...

'I'm itching for a fight on a whole range of issues." President Barack Obama made that threat last week as Congress moved to pass his bipartisan tax-cut compromise. Why was Mr. Obama so pugilistic? It was partly to reassure unhappy Democratic liberals, especially bitter Democratic congressmen. Many are from gerrymandered districts where little news about the midterm elections has apparently penetrated. But a scorched-earth policy doesn't make sense for the Obama White House. Independents voted Republican last month by a 59% to 38% margin not because they thought Mr. Obama too civil, his course too centrist, and his bipartisanship too...

Ingraham: "Is anyone going to run as a Bush Republican in 2012 and if so who?" Rove: "Every one of them is going to run as a Bush Republican by saying 'I want to continue to fight the war on terror' -- with maybe one or two exceptions -- and, 'I want to continue the Bush tax cuts Video at link.

Via Mediaite, yet another clip of 2012 pot-stirring awesomeness from Laura Ingraham. First she had Palin on and pressed her not only on what Barbara Bush said but on Chris Christie’s dig at her on Leno. Then Huckabee came on and she started pushing his buttons about being looked down upon by the squishy egghead city slickers who don’t know the Real America the way he does. Now here’s Rove being nudged to defend the Bushes from the Huck/Palin populist onslaught. She might as well start calling these segments, “You Gonna Take That?” I can’t wait to see what she...

Karl Rove discusses Sarah Palin's book tour and a possible presidential run. Palin will be doing three book tour events in Iowa, which Rove calls a "smart move." "She's got a problem with Independents and she has a problem with Democrats," Rove said about Palin's rating with these groups.

In the nation’s last undecided Senate race, national Republicans are coming to the aide of tea party favorite Joe Miller, and will ask supporters to help pay for his post-election legal fight against incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski appears to be leading Miller by a wide margin in her write-in bid, but National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn will e-mail supporters Friday and urge them to make donations to Miller’s campaign. “Joe Miller in Alaska is dedicated to the conservative principals we need in Washington DC. But he faces the potential of a lengthy recount. And in Alaska,...

There is a singular event that shoved the Republican Senate car over the cliff. That event was the primary victory of Christine O'Donnell. This morning she used a phrase that is right on the money. That description is "Republican Cannibalism." I personally hold Karl Rove to blame, followed closely by Senator John Cornyn. Rove is an establishment Progressive Republican of the first order. Following O'Donnell's message of values victory in Delaware, Rove started slinging mud in her direction because he realized she was a woman that couldn't be bought & sold on a D.C. street corner. It was Rove who...

Thought I should start an open threat post-election. Some observations: 1: Christie O'Donnell was a disaster. Despite plenty of money she received less votes than the GOP candidate for the Delaware's sole Congressional seat. I knows it pains me to say this but Rove was right. Angel was another huge disappointment. She recevied less votes than the total GOP vote for the Congressional seats in NV. Lets stop running amateurs who provide plenty of material for the likes of SNL and John Stewart.Related to (1). Strong conservative candidates with experience and good backgrounds did very well for example, Rubio, Paul,...

Karl Rove was just on the Fox News morning show. When asked who deserves the credit for the Republican tsunami he mentioned Obama but no credit at all for the Tea Party. He also gloated over his forecasting prowess.

We need a consolidated live thread - unless there is already one I can't find.

Sarah Palin and her allies have not taken kindly to comments by Karl Rove this week that the former Alaska governor is not ready to be president, firing back at the former Bush White House political adviser in a fight that illustrates the simmering tensions within the Republican Party. Palin herself made a crack about Rove Thursday but refrained from making pointed comments. But nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin went after Rove with passion. “I have to say, nice guy aside, this guy needs to get off the stage. He is yesterday’s operative,” Levin said. “There...

Karl Rove, the former senior adviser to George W Bush, has cast serious doubt on Sarah Palin's viability as a White House candidate, questioning if the American people thought she had the "gravitas" for the "most demanding job in the world". Expressing the strongest public reservations about the conservative star made by any senior Republican figure, Mr Rove said it was unlikely that voters would regard someone starring in a reality show as presidential material. In two weeks, the former governor of Alaska launches a cable television series exploring her home state's wilderness. "With all due candour, appearing on your...

Karl Rove seems to be taking some heat for his saying the Tea Party is less sophisticated than the Reagan Revolution - enough heat to tug on Tucker Carlson's chain for a slight walk-back, anyway. That's some leash. I guess it extends to Texas after all. Heh! But pay attention to the bit from Rove in bold below. What he calls progress, we call progressivism of the Republican sort. And that's just the sort of big government Republicanism I would link to Karl Rove. SPIEGEL: But is he so different from other Democratic presidents? Take Lyndon B. Johnson. He introduced...

In 2004, the Republican master strategist Karl Rove led weekly sessions at his Washington residence where he planned the re-election of President George W. Bush. In April, Mr. Rove summoned several of the important players behind Mr. Bush’s ascendance to his home once again, this time to draw up plans to push a Republican resurgence. The landscape has changed, with Mr. Rove at times clashing with potent new Tea Party-style activists, some of whom view him as a face of the old party establishment they want to upend. Already a prominent presence as an analyst on Fox News Channel and...

As far as I am concerned he is the most hated man in the GOP, I dislike him 20 times more than McCain even, I cannot believe this guy

Karl Rove – the top GOP strategist who declared last week that Christine O’Donnell’s surprise victory does “little good” for the party – is now calling on the surprise Senate nominee to explain her comments about witchcraft. "In southern Delaware where there are a lot of churchgoing people, they're going to want to know what that is all about,” the former aide to President George W. Bush told "Fox News Sunday." “My view is she can’t simply ignore it,” he said. “She’s got to deal with it and explain it and put it in its most sympathetic light and move...

Karl Rove, political mastermind for former President Bush, said Sunday that Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party insurgent who won an upset victory in Delaware for the GOP Senate nomination, "can't simply ignore" the controversy stirred over the disclosure that she "dabbled in witchcraft" and has to find a way to "explain it and put it in its most sympathetic light and move on." "In southern Delaware, where there are a lot of church-going people, they're probably going to want to know what was that all about," Rove said on Fox News Sunday. "And again, she said it on television when...

Neil Cavuto just teased: Is Christine O'Donnell the next Marco Rubio? Karl Rove will be here to analyze? FAIR & BALANCED.

Ingenious! Here we all thought Karl Rove was bashing Delaware conservative Christine O’Donnell and all along he was just raising money for her senatorial campaign. Karl Rove walked back his attacks on Christine O’Donnell this morning on FOX News. “My job as a Fox analyst is to call it as I see them,” Rove explained this morning. “My job is not to be a cheerleader for every Republican.” Rove listed all the reasons he’s said in the past why O’Donnell has destroyed the GOP’s (already outside) chances at a Senate majority — the problems with “honesty” he first mentioned on...