Breaking News: Hillary Clinton now thinks Karl Rove's a political genius

Until very recently -- like suddenly this afternoon -- Karl Rove was to most Democrats the Great Satan, the political mastermind of two outrageously stunning Republican presidential victories by a Texas goofball governor and, before that, the unfortunate upset ousting of a popular Democratic governor named Ann Richards, as well as the overall rejuvenation of the Lone Star state GOP in statewide offices.

In fact, there are few things politically evil that Rove has not been blamed for by Democrats, even nine months after he exited the White House to write a book, consult and opine in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and as an analyst for Fox News.

In recent months one of the worst things Sen. Hillary Clinton could say about her chief opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, was that he was taking moves out of the "Karl Rove playbook." Can you imagine?! "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" she said. Which, if you stop to think about it, means Obama was being successful.

So successful, in fact, that the Illinois freshman senator, ahead in delegates and popular votes, is on the brink of snatching the party's nomination and even acting like the presumptive nominee, ignoring Clinton and taking on who's-its from Arizona.

For his part, a year ago Rove was saying Clinton was the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination and then, later, he said she was a tremendously flawed candidate with extremely high negatives for a national candidate. Both true at the time.

How quickly things change in this season's presidential politics.

Today, Clinton began citing Rove as the ultimate expert on who was the strongest Democratic candidate in the Nov. 4 general. And we've got the exclusive maps below to prove it, all four confidential pages.

No, really!

Campaigning in Kentucky today for tomorrow's....

...primary vote, Clinton sought to justify why she's staying in a race it's virtually impossible for her to win mathematically. She said, as she often does, "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."

Fine. Very familiar.

Then, she veered off into new territory. "Just today," Clinton said, "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. Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is."

In his short tenure as TV analyst Rove has become famous for his 8x10 colored U.S. maps showing whatever he's trying to demonstrate. He's long been renowned among co-workers for mining details and all sorts of fascinating tidbits from material that others completely missed.

His latest four pages of Fox maps (see below) show Clinton leading the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, by more than 50 electoral votes in a hypothetical match-up based on current state polls. And another Rove map shows Obama trailing McCain slightly.

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.

-- Andrew Malcolm

CLICK ON THE MAP AND SCROLL THROUGH ALL 4 PAGES

Photo Credits: AP
Maps courtesy of KarlRove&Co.

Comments

[HigherMinds]

Informed Choice Is Real Power -- This video from youtube contains information that everyone needs to know about what is happening to the privacy of our personal information and how it's being used as a political tool by candidates via the Internet.

http://www.youtube.com/user/KlearTruth

Please share this with everyone you know because everyone deserves the opportunity to make an informed choice about who has access to their personal information.

[John Quimby]

He's loving this.

[cnnr]

first she starts politicking and attacking her opponent in a Rovian way, then she starts quoting Rove. Nice. She just tied the knot with the Republican Party.

[cnnr]

Doesn't she realize that nobody cares anymore? Everybody but her and her staunchest supporters has moved on.

[Jack]

I'm going to comment on Rove's map rather than Clinton's statement.

It's far too early to assume that states with, say, a 4-6 point difference will go the way the polls say today. May polls tend to be poor indicators of November election results. I might make an exception for moderately close states that are leaning towards the party which has traditionally won the state, as is the case in South Dakota.

Also, I wouldn't make any assumptions about a traditional swing state like NH with a slightly larger difference.

Taking away these close states, it is clear that Obama has a good shot in November.

[Ryan]

Karl Rove is saying HILLARY is the stronger candidate for ONE REASON ONLY!

He knows the Republicans will probably lose to either candidate and he thinks Clinton would be the better President. Almost all Republicans know Obama would be a disaster for our country. Furthermore, he fears Obama's tax policies and foreign policy ideas and knows Clinton would offer a much more moderate policy. That's why he's showing Clinton some "support."

[Jerry Tsai]

Rove's analysis is worth examining, even if Clinton wants to uses it to tout her candidacy.

What I see: The maps are based on poll results, which are unstable. The most notable feature is Clinton's rise in poll numbers starting one month ago. This, frankly, does not make that much sense. She's not that much a better candidate today than she was one month ago.

Keep in mind that Senator Obama (and the Republicans) have pretty much ignored Clinton during that time. If any of them decided to highlight Clinton's ample flaws, her poll numbers would no doubt return to where they were a month before, and the maps would look far different. Thus, whlie the maps are based on real data (presumably), to validate Clinton's candidacy by citing poll numbers for an election to be held half a year from now when nobody is using any time or money pointing out why she is not a good candidate would be foolish.

But then in the world of Clintonian math, the only metrics that matter are the ones that she says matter.

[mike diaz]

I'm a democrat if the election is Hillary and McCain i will vote for Hillary and she will be our next president ..... if is Obama and McCain i will vote for McCain and McCain will win by a landslide. I have always voted democrat.

[redwoodtreehugger]

Very embarrassing, Hillary.

[Andrew Austin]

He's saying it because it's true. Just because you don't like his politics doesn't mean his analysis is incorrect. I loathe Karl Rove. And he is very smart when it comes to electoral politics. No contradition there. In fact, if he wasn't so smart we wouldn't know about him and therefore could not hate him.

[Willie in Kansas]

Karl Rove was the Great Satan. Karl Rove is Satan, the Angel tossed from Heaven, the Judas of the working class American. Karl Rove taught Lucifer everything he knows. He has no morals, no ethics, no religion. We call this piece of walking elephant dong, a political mastermind? Yeah, I want to throw up in his face, have this Kodak moment, just frame it and put it in the GOP Hall of Notoriety or Infame, whatever (LOL). Are Rove and Ann Coulter married to each other? Yeah, I'd trade her for a Camel in Morroco. I hate her too. Only in America, scum like Rove attract the attention he does. He is no genious, if he were he would have steered clear of Bush if he cared for his country men. He doesn't, but his manipulative, evil ways have given birth to a new movement. Conservative does not equal Republican. I'm a conservative, and Karl Rove does not speak for me. He doesn't believe in anything I believe. Then again, I would understand any drunken woman impregnated by him wanting to have an abortion. The guy is just hideous looking. Yeah, rally the sheep, appeal to their prejudice, incite anger frustration, give them piece meal information. Twist the meaning of words and phrases. Kill the homos, kill the rag-head, deport the Mexicans, even those born in the USA, put the Cubans back in an inner-tube, push them away, and poke a hole in it. All these people that have never done anything but to pursue their American dream are the victims of Rove and his antics. Yes, he has indeed succeeded in getting Bush in the White House. Now people are scrapping and having to choose between food and oil. Yeah, by the way is the fault of the liberals and the people who hate us. Maybe is because there are no homos in Iran. Bush, Cheney, Chavez and the Iranians are rolling in the big oil dough. What US Combat Veterans and the American Family get? Our sons and daugthers in a body bag. Yes, Rove is quite an accomplished piece of Nazi Kraftwerk. I hope he gets AIDS it would serve him right.

[NinaK]

Like many of us have been saying: Hilliary will do anything, say anything, and act any way to try and convince voters she is the one and only one who can be President. The fact is, she has already proven she is not fit to lead our nation.....since she cannot even run a good campaign, cannot pick decent and knowledgable people to be her managers, cannot manage the campaign budget, and cannot tell the truth, how could anyone in their right mind want her to be our President and Commander-in-Chief? She might be good at "reciting" policy, but obviously is sorely lacking in all other areas. Integrity, Honest, Wisdom, good leadership, good steward of finances, and making the right decisions count far much more than being able to recite policy.

Oregon, please, let's end Hilliary's madness.

[NinaK]

Like many of us have been saying: Hilliary will do anything, say anything, and act any way to try and convince voters she is the one and only one who can be President. The fact is, she has already proven she is not fit to lead our nation.....since she cannot even run a good campaign, cannot pick decent and knowledgable people to be her managers, cannot manage the campaign budget, and cannot tell the truth, how could anyone in their right mind want her to be our President and Commander-in-Chief? She might be good at "reciting" policy, but obviously is sorely lacking in all other areas. Integrity, Honest, Wisdom, good leadership, good steward of finances, and making the right decisions count far much more than being able to recite policy.

Oregon, please, let's end Hilliary's madness.

[08vote]

The last piece of the kitchen sink strategy.

Hillary will continue to campaign in Montana and S. Dakota because she can't let down her pretense of having a possible shot at the Democratic Nomination. In the meantime, Bill Clinton is also propping up her with his false sense of security. Hillary may deliver her swan song in Montana, population of 300 people - in her mind, the best place to mitigate any embarrassment of losing by giving a concession speech in a state that doesn't count for much, anyway.

[Barbara]

Mike Diaz, I guess I can blame you then when Social Security is privatized, women lose abortion rights, unions lose power and we are in a 100 year war in Iraq. Maybe you should rethink your strategy of voting for McCain out of spite.

[M. E. Steadmann]

Democrats who claim they will vote McCain if Obama is the Democratic nominee should really take a long hard look at themselves and think about where they stand politically, or if they even have any political philosophy at all.

If they are truly Democrats, why vote for a Republican when you can vote Nader? Nader is certainly closer to the Democrats on many policy issues. That would make much more sense than swinging all the way to the right, plus a vote for Nader would have a healthy effect on the nation. A third party might be just the thing we need to keep our leaders -- from the two major parties -- honest.

Unless, of course, these so-called Democrats are really, really racist or really, really sexist.

The Steadmanns

[Pat]

Looking at the data, McCain has dropped and Obama has moved up in EC just in the past week. The race isn't even started, so we have, at best, a snapshot that is open to many changes over the next months, especially after both parties have had their conventions. Why is Karl doing this? Part of his mischief -- he wants Clinton to hang in there for as long as she can and he wants to create a myth that Obama won't win. As Karl well knows -- tell a lie often enough and some people will believe it.

Remember,Kerry won the popular vote and lost the EC by a single state: Ohio. Bush won a first term on a single state: FL and with the help of a Supreme Court. This race is too close to call, and will likely remain so on Election Night.

[Jim H]

Rove is mostly effective when he can turn his enemies into gibbering idiots by worrying about what he means, what he's "got up his sleeve." Maybe not much, you know? It's just the latest numbers, with what seems to be a wildly rosy picture of Republican politics. His numbers were way off in 2006, too. He doesn't understand what gives now.

[BWare]

Hillary citing Rove as the authoritative reference, presumably a man of profound wisdom and insight?

Never thought I'd see the day. I'm opening the next piece of mail I get from Publishers Clearinghouse...

[Miri NY]

This is no surprise.
Like Rove having no experience (unless you also believe Laura Bush has experience) & a bad resume, 6 Y on the Walmart Board & a husband who is in bed w/ Dubai you play the race card against your opponent.
Hill, he' not a genius. He just does it better than you do. It's hard to fake it, especially when you have a large state who resent being stuck w/ a racist carpetbagger like you.
Don't worry Hill, Obama will carry NY in a landslide. May be slippage on people like Rangel, Nadler, etc. who forced you on us in the 1st place. (But better decent Republicans than the corrupt Dems who have tolerated yr racist tantrums.
CA is similar, except they haven't had to put up w/ you.
See Hill yr problem isn't that yr a woman. Yr problem is you have no talent for politics.

[laughing at the dems]

this is what now passes for news ? how is this not in the OpEd section ? This sound as if it was (poorly) written by one the newly eligible wedding brides in california. All emotion, no facts

but hey, that is how the dems role, sho' yo' right.

The truth is, this is just a replay of 2000. Dems were screaming and whining and trying to change all the rules then. They are a disaster.

[Wonkers]

Rove is playing this one like a fiddle. He knows Hillary's weaknesses and is reeling her in like a fish. Disinformation is his forte. My take is that he has already figured that Obama is the stronger opponent, but by dividing the Democrats with statistical obfuscation for as long as possible, it gives McCain a chance to repeat the mantra and hopefully gain traction.

[ABE]

For the LA TIMES to legitimize congenital liar, thief,
and criminal Karl Rove, is inexcusable!?!

(Did you actually read the item? Try it again. Because it's Sen. Clinton who's citing him as an expert.)

[aramps]

I can think of more than a few potential veeps that would blow these projections out of the water.

I am not suggesting that Rove's numbers are inaccurate, just that "anyone but Dan Quayle or Tom Eagleton" is not the full picture here.

[Bill]

I find it interesting that the GOP would spend time and effort to create a map of which states McCain would win and yet clearly nobody read the constitution. McCain cannot run for president! He is NOT a Natural Born Citizen as is required to hold the office of president. Of course that will not stop him from running, as the GOP is evil.