Karl Rove is a genius. His genius was applied to politics in a way that distressed, well, liberals and moderates, and all of the candidates whose careers were destroyed by the application of that genius.

People that we like or don't like are not made smarter or dumber by our opinion of them

Well said, Tonto. Rove is living proof of the old joke: "What do you call the class nerd 10 years after high school?"

"Boss."

I would look like a genius too if I ignored all moral, legal and ethical restraints to win elections.

or maybe I'd just look like a jerk.

I think some talent is needed as well as an ability to be ruthless. Too many wannabe's out there have the ruthlessness and the sarcasm but little or no talent. Most of them call in to talk radio like Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of that sorry bunch.

Clinton (Bill) was/is ruthless and morally challenged -- but then, people call him a genius, too.

I think the jury is still out on Rove's alleged genius. He did pull a pretty impressive rabbit out of his hat by engineering the election of a president only marginally smarter than a box of dirt. But if you recall, his longer-term strategic goal was to establish a "durable Republican majority"; we'll see what happens in November (if Hillary's nominated, that might just energize enough Republicans to make it competitive), but he might end up achieving just the opposite. His strategy of winning by ginning up turnout of the far-right base was one part of a larger pattern of overreach that might just have turned the Democrats into a semblance of a functional party united against a common enemy.

I agree with you about waiting for a longer-term analysis of Karl Rove's impact on politics, but I am not sure the durable Republican majority was his goal. If I rember correctly, that goal was dreamed up by people like Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay; Rove was more of a mechanic.

I haven't yet seen any evidence of the Democrat party turning into an organized, cohesive, and viable political party capable of taking on the GOP. The Democrats will get votes only so long as the public remembers what a bad idea it was to let people who hate government actually run government. When that's gone, I think it will be a crapshoot.

tonto_goldberg:

I haven't yet seen any evidence of the Democrat party turning into an organized, cohesive, and viable political party capable of taking on the GOP.

You must be missing the fact that Obama and Clinton are engaged in a popularity contest and issue by issue share almost the same platform, which the voters seem to be enjoying. On the other hand the GOP seems to be floundering among a group of candidates whose views range from draconian to moderately liberal.

I think the true genius of Rove was the unlikely coalition of fundamentalist Christians with fiscal conservatives. Maybe without him there is no way to reconcile those two groups.... Darn

Rove should have been jailed years ago when he worked with Segretti on Nixon's "dirty tricks" squad. he was only let off the hook because of his young age. a bit of rough justice applied to the trickster turdblossom would have nipped his evil career in the bud. too bad law enforcement was so lax. we would have been spared dumbya, iraqnam war, and all the other sh*t that has hit the fan, not to mention the shredding of our constitution,

Airflorida: "You must be missing the fact that Obama and Clinton are engaged in a popularity contest and issue by issue share almost the same platform, which the voters seem to be enjoying. On the other hand the GOP seems to be floundering among a group of candidates whose views range from draconian to moderately liberal."

I'm not missing a thing - but watch for the delegate count crisis when the superdelegates renegotiate the outcome of the various primaries and caucuses nationwide. Clinton is already going negative against Obama.

Yes, Karl Rove is a genius. But then, so was Adolph Hitler.

Well, no, actually Hitler was not a genius at all. He was rather lucky, and a powerful speaker.

tonto_goldberg:

Karl Rove is a genius. His genius was applied to politics in a way that distressed, well, liberals and moderates, and all of the candidates whose careers were destroyed by the application of that genius.

People that we like or don't like are not made smarter or dumber by our opinion of them

CaliforniaDreamin replies:

I am aware of careers destroyed by the Clintons, such as the careers of the entire White House Travel Office Staff.

Paula Jones' life was essentially destroyed because Clinton first exposed his pathetic erection to her, asking her to "kiss it" and then wasn't man enough to apologize.

Monica Lewinksy's life was destroyed and disgraced, as Bubba himself danced through it all and nearly escaped without a scratch except for the wise counsel of that "ugly" Linda Tripp, who advised Monica not to clean Bill's semen from her Blue Dress.

But help me here, tonto. Whose careers "were destroyed" by the genius of Karl Rove?

If people you "don't like are not made dumber by (your) opinion of them," then why do you Democrats spend so very much time calling us Republicans "dumb" and "stupid" and "bible-thumpers" and "fascists" and "Nazis" and "racists" and "homophobes" and "misogynists" and on and on and on, ad nauseum?

Today you are just plain tiresome. Clinton was a different kind of genius and a different kind of evil. Listing Clinton's real and alleged crimes and misdeeds does not add or subtract anything from Karl Rove's rap sheet.

We could start out with a little talk about Rove's destruction of GOP primary candidates who were not conservative enough, like John McCain, but I wonder if that was your goal.