Is onetime Republican political maven Karl Rove too transparent for his or his party’s own good? As I noted here, Rove was back to his old tricks recently in masterfully conducting the new and old media orchestras when he made charge he could later deny he made that thrust the (non) issue onto news cycles, on talk radio and — naturally — on ideological blogs. The (non) issue was charging in a way he could deny he ever said Hillary Clinton was suffering from brain damage.
It’s sort of like the whispering campaign of smears Rove & Co were accused of conducting when John McCain fought George W. Bush for the 2000 GOP Republican nomination. Rove’s alleged tactics worked and critics have long charged that innuendo and plausibility are his patented style. When called on it, Rove has been able to thumb his nose since the whole point of plausible deniability is to be able to plausibly deny something even though a jar of gifilte fish at DZ Akin’s deli in San Diego can easily figure out happens and knows innuendo when it hears it.
But is Rove actually Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon if she runs?
A new poll suggests his innuendo that turned a suggestion into a raging issue in the new and old media with some conservative pundits on Fox and conservative bloggers gobbling it up like cotton candy may have not succeeded with the audience it presumably was aimed at:
Most voters.
Anyone subscribing to the idea that Karl Rove is engaging in some devilishly smart politics by going out of his way to talk about Hillary Clinton’s health and age might want to take a look at a poll that dropped Wednesday morning.
The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey indicated that the man hailed as the “architect” of George W. Bush’s two successful presidential campaigns may have outwitted himself. Two-thirds of Americans said they disapprove of Rove “raising questions” about the former secretary of state’s “age and health.”
Only a quarter of respondents said they approve of Rove’s comments.
Rove has spent much of this month discussing Clinton’s fitness for the presidency after he addressed her late-2012 hospitalization at a conference in California. He insisted that he never said Clinton had “brain damage,” but contended that it’s fair game to talk about a would-be candidate’s health.
Of course, that’s his whole style. He has moved off that riff now but is still hammering Hillary Clinton. This time the man who was at his peak during the Bush years but whose efforts in 2012 failed famously is saying a Clinton 2016 candidacy “too old and stale.”
That’s sort of like the pot calling the pot a pot.
Has Rove’s effectiveness run its course? Most likely not totally, but he ain’t what he used to be.
His kind of tiresome, predictable partisan charges is quinessential Baby Boomer hubris, the kind that younger up and coming voters find trite and transparent.
It’s unlikely to actually sway more voters, but it will get him money for his PAC. Fox News is the perfect outlet for him where he can say what like-minded voters want to hear and suggest and deny what like minded voters believe. But it’s hard to see him swaying people who a)disagree with his perspective, or, b)have an open mind and who are open to voting EITHER way on Hillary Clinton if she does run.
It’s all about talking to a choir — or singing a song with music that the choir already knows and loves.
The GOP’s problem which conservatives increasingly seem to try to ignore is that they need to expand their choir and open their tent. Name calling or using innuendo won’t work and can actually create sympathy for the target and mobilize the target’s supporters to double their efforts to battle Republicans.
If the GOP follows Rove’s lead and it fails in 2016, the perhaps the Republican Party’s Political Effectiveness Police will finally perp walk him out of the party’s corridors of power and influence.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.