The enemy of my enemy is…? Senator Hillary Clinton — just like any other Democrat — has used comparing someone’s campaign tactics to Karl Rove as the ultimate political insult. But — in yet a new somersault in a campaign year when candidates are doing so many somersaults that they could win red ribbons in the Olympics — Clinton is citing an analysis by you-know-who as reason to stay in the Democratic nomination race:
Hillary Clinton defended her reasoning for staying in the presidential race Monday afternoon by pointing out that Karl Rove’s analysis shows her to be the strongest candidate against John McCain in November.
“There has been a lot of analysis about which of us is stronger to win against Sen. McCain, and I believe I am the stronger candidate,” said Clinton, repeating a line from her stump speech.
Then she veered from her usual argument.
“Just today I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by – of all people – Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate,” said Clinton. “Somebody go a hold of his analysis and there it is.”
Clinton was referring to electoral maps drawn up by Karl Rove’s consulting firm that were obtained by ABC and forecast her currently leading McCain in the electoral college by 53 votes (259-206), while Obama trails McCain by 17 (238-221).
Will this argument work? The argument that superdelegates should tilt to Clinton because Rove’s analysis shows her to be a stronger candidate might not sit well with some superdelegates, Democrats and even pundits.
And conspiracy theory addicts will have a field day, as Los Angeles Times blogger Andrew Malcomb notes in a post titled: “Breaking News: Hillary Clinton now thinks Karl Rove’s a political genius”:
In an e-mail this evening Rove confirmed his most recent data does indeed show what Clinton is citing. And he passed along copies of his copyrighted maps, which we are publishing below.
O.K., now let’s see what this is really about. So Rove, the Republican Svengali of modern American politics, is really saying that Clinton is stronger because he wants Democrats to pick her because he secretly knows that she really isn’t stronger and that will backfire and actually help the GOP’s McCain.
Or, no, wait. Maybe Rove is really saying Clinton is stronger now because he knows Democrats won’t believe him so then they’ll do the opposite and choose Obama, which is really what Rove wants because he knows McCain is stronger against the freshman senator.
That’s probably it. Because Rove couldn’t possibly be telling the truth.
Since there are exclusive maps on the LAT blog, we won’t publish them on TMV…but do go to the link to see them yourself.
Clinton’s pointing to Rove as a reason to stay in shows the nature of partisan politics where demons can instantaneously lose their horns and regain instant respectability. Or people generally considered reasonable can be instantaneously given pitchforks.
Why, it seems like only yesterday when Clinton was seen as a sure thing that Rove was going after her (just like he now goes after Obama).
In January, Rove made a sarcastic remark about Clinton’s take in the Michigan primary.
Last summer, when Clinton seemed the “ineviitable” candidate, Rove called her a “fatally flawed” candidate.
Karl Rove was even doing Bill Clinton impersonations on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Show.
Hillary Clinton, in turn, said Rove “obssesses” about her.
But all that’s ancient history now, because Rove’s research shows she’s the strongest candidate.
Cover your ears, quickly, because the loud sound of the stampede of superdelegates wanting to endorse her due to the man Democrats love to hate could break your eardrums.
(Or not..)
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.