Rove: Political Jujitsu or Sunday Brunch

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Rove: Political Jujitsu or Sunday Brunch

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Karl Rove, who is retiring as President Bush's chief strategist later this month, has uncharacteristically confronted Hillary Clinton and criticized her abilities to lead the country should she win the Presidential election of 2008.

Democrats are chasing their tails not certain if this is common place banter from a man facing retirement after a decade of political wrangling, or the last masterpiece of a political genius.  In the 2004 election Rove focused his critical attention on John Kerry, because he wanted Democrats to rush to his defense and support him as the Democratic nominee for President.  Rove felt that Kerry was an easier opponent than John Edwards, and worked with other Republicans to ignore Edwards while attacking Kerry.  Kerry would go on to be the Democratic nominee and Edwards the vice presidential side kick.

Today, Democratic leaders do not want to be manipulated as they may have been three years ago.  They warn that Rove may be up to his old tricks by having identified a strong candidate capable of defeating a Republican in 2008, and now counter intuitively is attacking Clinton. 

However, Rove may be using reverse-reverse-psychology to his advantage this time.  Calculating that Democrats would assume he was using his old tactics and not rally around Clinton, but look for another candidate: the one Rove fears.  Thus, democrats would move away from Clinton and toward another candidate who in Rove's mind was not a superior candidate, but in fact a weaker candidate.  Rove would in this way erode Clinton's support.

Unless, of course the Democrats, who have studied Rove's world over ten years, figure this out as a manipulation of reverse-reverse-psychology and confront it with their own version.  By allowing Republicans to think that they support a candidate other than Clinton, but really supporting Clinton, they would divert GOP efforts at fighting off a Clinton White House bid, by having to focus on more than one opponent.  A sort of divide and conquer approach. 

But Rove, would have anticipated this move, and at the moment that Democrats expected a divided approach to facing the Democratic nominees he would unleash a united front against Clinton, or the other truly superior candidate who is not Clinton, unless Clinton is the superior candidate.
 
If you are still following, the executive summary is such: Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, Rove is retiring in a week, Republicans will have a focused front against Clinton no matter who will be the eventual GOP nominee.