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Rove Says Obama Is Like “Arrogant” Martini Drinking Country Club Member

June 23rd, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

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Comments by former White House political maven Karl Rove about presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to some Republican insiders underscore what’s to come in campaign 2008 — and what’s wrong with American politics…how it has descended to All Personalities All The Time where frantically trying to define someone negatively often replaces serious issues debate.

From ABC’s Political Punch:

ABC News’ Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as “coolly arrogant.”

Rove calling Obama arrogant is like the pot calling the pot a pot.

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy,” Rove said, per Christianne Klein. “He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

HUH??

If you took a poll of Americans who like, dislike Obama, or even HATE Obama or had them describe him for you, you’d get many things but most assuredly most wouldn’t say he resembles a guy in a country club with a beautiful date hanging on his arm, drinking a martini.

This isn’t a prevalent view of Obama that you’ve heard — or that you can even find in a lot of blog posts or even in anonymous sourced news stories. Do a Google search yourself.

This is an image Rove has signaled he and his associates will seek to create. Will they superimpose Obama’s head on the campaign 2004 ad of John Kerry on a windsurfer?

Besides, I thought the problem with Obama was Arugula…

How can Americans possibly vote for a guy for President who says something about the price of Arugula, let alone eats that stuff? How can anyone be seriously considered to implement policies that might seek a different course on the economy, energy policy, the war and other issues who looks like (Rove says) a guy hanging out in a country club smoking, with a beautiful woman on his arm making snide comments? And when he isn’t smoking, talking to the woman on his arms or making snide comments, he’s stuffing greens from Whole Foods in his mouth. Why, the very THOUGHT of it!

And, if you analyze this, just what are these “snide” comments? Obama criticizing McCain in his campaign?

Rove said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “needs to come right at him.” He referred to the latest Newsweek poll showing Obama with a 15-point lead over McCain as nonsense, though he used a more scatological synonym. Rove said he was heading over to the White House for lunch and a chat with the President, Klein reports.

Since he’s advising McCain, it’s clear, then, that Rove is doing what he has done to American politics since he burst upon the national scene like a ruptured, fragrant sewer pipe: he is urging McCain to go negative very early and very hard.

Why do these comments matter? Rove is still in touch with Bush and he is an informal adviser to McCain. This is a foreshadow of the campaign that is to come. Rove & Co will hit the ground running.

Is the Obama campaign ready for it? Or is Obama too focused on the country club, the woman on his arm, his smokes, his wisecracks and his hunger for exotic but bargain-priced salad?

Or, even if this stereotype takes, will the American people be too focused on the ailing economy, sky-high gas prices, home foreclosures, Iraq War that has dragged on longer than World War II, skyrocketing health care costs, growing inflation, growing unemployment — and the need to take a Big Broom and sweep out those who’ve administered the federal government — to care?

UPDATE: One of the most interesting blog reactions comes from Comments From Left Field. Why? Because when you CLICK HERE you’ll see that he has a detailed list of positive and negative points about EACH of the candidates. There’s also a pie chart showing that Obama gets 75 percent of the news stories. Kyle Moore writes:

If this little pie chart is correct, Obama is getting nearly 75% of share of stories regarding the presidential election compared to only 25% for McCain. That, folks, is saturation.

There have been two things I’ve been kind enough to point out for our friends on the right. The first is be careful regarding how viciously you go after Obama; he’s not John Kerry, and he’s not likely to let much go by unanswered. Further, he has displayed thus far the kind of political awareness and raw leverage to redirect many attacks back at his opponents, and use those attacks to feed into his overall political narrative.

The other thing that I’ve mentioned several times now in the past is that conservatives need to start learning how to build a positive case for McCain.

Why? Read it in its entirety.



This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under John McCain, Newsweek Blogitics, Negative Campaigning, Demonization, Barack Obama, Republicans, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Karl Rove, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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