Love him or hate him, Karl Rove is a political campaign genius. The trashing of John McCain in 2000 and the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004 were nothing short of campaign brilliance on his part. I find the man’s manipulation of the American public quite disturbing and borderline “evil”, but I respect his intellect and understanding of the electorate.
When I reflect on the pure idiocy and ineptitude of the current Romney campaign, it is very clear that Karl Rove is abiding by the federal rules for Super PACs that they are not allowed to coordinate with political campaigns.
Thus, there is no way that Karl Rove is advising the Romney campaign.
Below is a short list of Romney’s major mistakes, just off the top of my head. Politico has a much more in depth article here.
· His overseas foreign policy trip was an absolute disaster, which ended with insulting our allies, in particular Prime Minister David Cameron
· The Republican convention was a terribly planned event that ended with little to no after-convention bump for Romney. Very importantly, Mitt did not mention our wars in the Middle East. And, let us not forget Clint Eastwood completely overshadowing Mitt, drastically impairing the impact of Mitt’s speech.
· His campaign team apparently is not well structured and is poorly organized. A good example of the campaign’s ineptitude would be the organization and result of his acceptance speech. Romney’s top strategist bypassed the campaign speech writing staff and gave the acceptance speech task to one man, Peter Wehner, a seasoned Republican Party speechwriter. And then, 8 days before the speech, Romney completely dumped every word of Wehner’s text.
· His campaign openly admitting they don’t care about fact checking.
· Until recently, his campaign has been void of any foreign policy statements.
· But, we all know what has happened of late –such as forgetting that there are recorders everywhere (Obama has done this too)… and Romney insulting half of the American population with his remark about the 47%.
These are probably the dumbest moves to date, and they might end up being the end of a successful Romney presidential campaign.
There is no dimension in this universe where Karl Rove would have allowed these things to happen to a campaign he was advising. . . none.
So, the question is: What are Karl Rove and his Super PAC, American Crossroads, really doing?
They are preparing for a Jeb Bush candidacy in 2016.
As was noted in the Business Week article “Exclusive: How Karl Rove’s Super PAC Plays the Senate“ on Sept 4th,
If the briefing on the presidential campaign was the main event, Rove’s evaluation of 15 Senate races was a close second. American Crossroads has become crucial to Republican hopes of taking back the Senate
The main focus of American Crossroads is to produce and pay for anti-Obama advertising, and advertising geared towards taking back the Senate.
How does this all work for a Jeb Bush run in 2016?
Well, Senate terms last 6 years and nothing would be more helpful to Jeb Bush than a large number of very grateful Republican Senators travelling the country in support of his campaign. Furthermore, anti-Obama advertising hurts the Democrats’ brand, something else Karl Rove will need for 2016.
Granted, Obama-bashing also helps Mitt Romney, but I don’t think Karl Rove believes that Mitt can win the Presidency. Karl will remain focused on the Senate, while establishing the grass roots network and leadership within the American Crossroads Super PAC for the day he leaves the organization and joins the Jeb Bush campaign.
Karl Rove’s loyalty to the Bush family runs deep, and he is playing the long game for Jeb Bush.