Can Karl Rove Conjure That Old Black Magic One Last Time?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
By most accounts, the Bush administration is now drifting through its darkest days, and what may make things appear most bleak to those vestiges of the Republican Party who still proudly refer to themselves as Bushies is that the silver lining has yet to be detected.
Enter Karl Rove, the Merlin behind the throne who, it might be inferred, may see holding onto Republican control of the House and Senate as the greatest challenge of his political career.
With polls now hovering in the low 30s, things have gotten bad enough to be something of a late night talk show joke. In fact, what must be truly disturbing to the White House is that self-described conservatives are now leaving the reservation, as a recent AP-Ipsos poll shows that forty-five percent of that group disapprove of the president's performance. To wit, The Washington Post quotes Lance Tarrance, a "prominent GOP pollster," as saying, "This administration may be over."
Some vulnerable Republicans have been tacking away from the president for some time, what E.J. Dionne Jr. calls the Great Republican Rebranding. Suddenly, issues such as poverty, environmentalism, and cracking down on corporate abuses are being taken on by Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, nervous about a national backlash this November.
The political game plan for Republicans these days clearly looks to be defense, while the Democrats are gearing up their offense after a long, cold off-season. Names such as Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Patrick Leahy will likely be oft heard from Republican political operatives in the coming months, as they will look to frighten swing voters into locking the Republican majority in for another two years. The idea that will be conveyed: Democrats will waste time holding investigations while the nation's priorities go untended.
It will likely be a tough sell in districts and states where vulnerable Republicans will be looking to retain their seats. With Iraq, economic jitters, high oil prices, scandal, and basic governmental competence on the minds of voters, Rove will likely look to push Republican candidates to run on local issues on the one hand, while brandishing fears about a Democratic takeover of Congress on the other.
One of Karl Rove's strengths is his ability to define the opponent and the issues first, while casting - at times cruelly - the opposing candidate's core strengths as negative attributes. In the most recent midterm elections, in 2002, the shadow of 9/11 still loomed large, allowing Republicans to make gains in the face of a largely stunned and listless opposition.
by Eric Berlin
posted by VICKY @ 12:07 PM,
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