Karl Rove by all accounts is a brilliant strategist and and former political advisor. His record impressive and worrisome for the Democratic party. His accomplishments numerous.
So it is a wise man that listens when Rove speaks and understands that when he states that he foresees a GOP victory, he has reason to believe it is true.
When I wrote Rove's October surprise, it was tongue in cheek, but I believed that the wishful thinking in the left media and the Democratic party were vastly underestimating Rove with their wishful thinking. First in assuming there was widespread "panic" in the Republican establishment, then with the presumption that Rove and Bush were suffering self delusion.
The Wapo article about the White House being upbeat about GOP prospects ponders:
The question is whether this is a case of justified confidence -- based on Bush's and Rove's electoral record and knowledge of the money, technology and other assets at their command -- or of self-delusion.
They suspected the latter, I suspect the former.
When the Washington Times story came out today saying Rove foresees a GOP victory. The man was a political consultant, he knows the system, he knows how it works, he knows what strategies are effective and he understands which issues will come to the forefront of the voters minds when they are in the voting booth.
White House political strategist Karl Rove yesterday confidently predicted that the Republican Party would hold the House and the Senate in next month's elections, dismissing fallout from the sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley.
At a luncheon with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, Mr. Rove -- who is widely credited as the architect of the party's historic 2002 midterm election gains -- said Republicans are beginning to make significant headway in defining their party's differences from congressional Democrats, especially on national security.
"I'm confident we're going to keep the Senate; I'm confident we're going to keep the House. The Foley matter has impact in some limited districts, but the research we have shows that people are differentiating between a vote for their congressman and a member from Florida," Mr. Rove said, referring to the Republican who resigned last month after his sexually explicit online messages to former congressional pages were discovered.
I am not counting the Republican party out of the race, not by a long shot. Rove is counting on people in the Republican base to vote and all the reporting and polls claiming that "some" Republicans will not be voting, or that the Democratic turnout will be different this year, what they did not address is this: people like myself, that have always voted Democrat and will be voting Republican this year, because I saw the nature of what the Democrats have become, and I value my life, something the Democrats have proven time and again they do NOT do.
I trust that despite mistakes made by the Republican, they have a true desire to keep America safe, and the Democrats only desire is to obtain power. That is their platform... scary isn't it?
These are some of the things that have been said about Karl Rove in the past.
Sam Gwynne, from the Texas Monthly says about Karl Rove:
If you met Karl and you talked to him, if you just sat down in a room with Karl, he can seem like your favorite history professor. He's wonderful. I love talking to Karl. In fact, all of us in the press, we all love Karl. Karl was great. Karl would give you great stuff that you didn't even ask for. He was full of information, knew everything that was going on.
Dan Balz-Washington Post:
Karl Rove loves information. He loves to be inundated by information, and the more information he can get, the more comfortable he feels about the decisions they're making. Second, because he is a student of history, he's just fascinated by history. But he's also fascinated by polling data, and he's fascinated by voter registration data and by precinct data and everything else imaginable, and by articles that an influential conservative columnist or academic has written. And in one way or another, they try to sort of infuse that into the daily life and the DNA of the White House. So their establishment of that gave them an extra dimension to the normal domestic or economic policymaking apparatus that you would normally have, which goes through the traditional, rigorous analysis of what the policy ought to be. It brings a layer that a lot of White Houses haven't always had so systematically.
Mike Alen-Washington Post:
When the president was giving his victory speech -- his acceptance speech, as the White House called it -- he described Mr. Rove simply as "the architect." And everyone in the room knew what that meant. He was the architect of the public policies that got them there. He was the architect of the campaign platform. He was the architect of the fund-raising strategy. He was the architect of the state-by-state strategy. He was the architect of the travel itinerary. His hand was in all of it.
Thomas Edsall-Washington Post:
One, he is smarter; he just plain is. He is well read. I had written a couple of books; he had read them. That's always a nice thing. He wanted me to make a presentation to his staff on one of these books. I had done a lot of work at that time on the whole rise of the conservative movement. That's been sort of my one claim to fame. And he knew this inside out, not just in Texas but everywhere. And he was acutely aware of what the pressures were, what conservatives capitalized on, what helped drive this whole movement, from race to taxes, to the whole '60s sexual revolution.
Dana Millbank-Washington Post:
Karl Rove came to town with one goal, and that was this massive Republican realignment in the nation's politics, trying to do what President McKinley did a century earlier. So by definition, his policy issues shift depending on what the needs of the moment are.
Ken Mehlman-Republican National Committee:
You walk around the White House and you see folks who are not the political staff, but the people that make the White House work -- whether they work in the mess or they work in the parking lot or they drive you, people that are critically important; people who too often a lot of people in politics don't know. And Karl Rove knows their names, knows who they are, knows their stories and treats them with the respect they deserve.
So, Ladies and gentleman, meet Karl Rove, the man who believes that the GOP is headed for victory. Vote, just Vote. His confidence and his political prowess gives me confidence and from his past record, it should give you confidence too.
Others posting: Strata-Sphere, Ex-Donkey Blog, Hyscience, Townhall Blog, Power Line, Environmental Republican, Freedom Eden, Don Surber.
Quick note on an unrelated issue here. President Bush has told us MANY times as has the letters we have intercepted from al-qaeda operatives, that al-qaeda will use the press to #1 make this war as ugly and gruesome as possible so the American people will push the administration to leave Iraq, therefore expelling us and #2 obtain critical information from our very own news media to use against us.
More proof that they are doing JUST that. Read about it here.