So Mr. Rove moves on what does this portend? Well, not much actually.
- Karl Rove was not an evil genius. However, he was smart enough politically to engineer the defeat of an incumbent Vice-President who thought he should be elected for no other reason than an overdeveloped sense of primogeniture. Then four years later, with one of the weakest incumbents in office, he was able to beat the Democratic candidate who had a sense of invincibility about him.
- The primary focus of the remainder of the Bush Administration will be on the global war on terror. There won't be much discussion on domestic issues such as Social Security or immigration reform. The Democrats are too focused on payback and the Republicans are playing defense. This won't be a return of the Clintonian era of small -bore initiatives such as V-chips and school uniforms, but there really isn't much for a political strategist to do -- so you might as well move on.
- As noted previously, the Democrats are playing payback and Rove has become a liability for the Administration. As a private citizen, the Democrats could care less what advice he offered the president on a whole raft of issues. They just wanted him gone. Rove, however, had the opportunity to pick the time and place of his departure.
- Rove now has the opportunity to host a Sunday morning talk show. Stephanopoulos, Russert, Matthews were all partisan hacks who worked for Clinton, Cuomo, and O'Neil respectively before they all became objective news hosts -- who's to say that Rove can't do the same? (Bob Schieffer is getting on in years...)
- Anyway, an award to the first lazy journalist who notes, when Bush will commit his next error, "Well this wouldn't have happened if Rove were still around." He made errors with Rove, he'll make them without him.
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