Do we give Karl Rove to much credit?

[Goldeneye]

It seems clear that BushCo has lost control of the Valerie Plame leak story. Rove is fallible, just like everyone else. So my question is have we been giving him to much credit? And if we did, did it hurt us at all to be wondering if everything was some sort of rovian trap?

[SteppingRazor]

1. Great operatives always get too much credit...

The aura of invincibility makes their work easier to do. Rove wasn't the only one who came to be feared by the opposition far more than he should have been -- or have we already forgotten then names James Carville and Lee Atwater?

[Goldeneye]

3. I wasn't really a politcal junky during the Clinton years.

I wish I had been, but there weren't a lot of jr high kids talking about politics.

It seems like we let them turn Rove into this untouchable genius that would crush us all if we underestimated him. Maybe this "aura of invincibility" is more common than I thought, but the media really did hype him. He was Bush's brain. He single handeldy won bush's reelection bid. Etc. We at DU wondered if everything, including the DSM, was a rovian distraction that would be discredited, and leave the left embarassed. It just seems like that cautiousness was a misguided, but maybe the caution was important.

[SteppingRazor]

5. I think caution is important, however...

I think it's just as unwise to overestimate your opponents as it is to underestimate them. Before he hooked up with Bush, Rove was mainly known for his ability to get extremely conservative judges elected in the Deep South -- not exactly a hard thing to do. He also developed an early reputation for attacking from the gutter -- in a race early in his career, he characterized one of his opponents as a possible child molester because the man did a lot of charitable work for kids.

So, you can take Rove either way. But the GOP feared Carville just as much, until he softened his image with them a bit by marrying Maitin.

And throughout Bush I (1980-1992), liberals REALLY feared Atwater. It was once said Carville would set Atwater's heart on fire and then refuse to piss down his throat to save his life. To this day, many people say Bush lost to Clinton because Atwater died in mid-campaign.

[etherealtruth]

2. He IS the master of manipulation! n/t

[KansDem]

4. Rove's "success" relies on two things...

1) Complacent, willing-to-please media who will print what he tells them and ignore what he tells them to ignore. In essence, the Whoreth Estate are both Bush cheerleaders and Rove stenograhers.

2) Whatever dirt Rove has on the DC "movers and shakers" gathered during the White House callboy scandals (and similar incidents) and anything else he's managed to dig up for the purposes of coercion and blackmail.

[wtmusic]

6. He is an evil genius

by far the best PR mind the White House has ever seen. A virtuoso of damage control.

Even geniuses make mistakes. His talents will be wasted in prison.