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

[Guillermo Lucero Funes]

Or he is doing it because there is no way a Republican would win this elections and Hillary and the Clinton clan are still playing for the lobbies and would not really make the change every decent American is waiting for the next presint to do. End this no sense war and bring this country back to reality. How are we expecting from people from around the world to believe in us if we don't respect ourselves. How we'll make them believe we are there to bring them democracy, if democracy doesn't exist any more in America. Today we are using the Koran for shooting practice in Irak. What's next. Thay can lie to us, we are the ones that make the choice on believing them or not. WAR IS OVER , if you want it.

[Richard P. McDonough]

This reprehensible woman is a soul mate of that reprehensible man. A Clinton-Rove ticket for the Knownothings, perhaps?

[jennifer potenciano]

there’s something deeply, nay dangerously, disturbing about american politics today. & once this is known—even at this late stage of the dems nominating contest--the better for america & the world in general.

caveat, voters in tomorrow’s oregon primary.

what’s wrong with the american electorate in this year’s presidential elections?

the question in this fall’s elections ought not to be the clash between two pioneering candidates, between a woman (albeit, white) american hopeful & an afro-american (black) aspirant, between racism & sexism. (sooner or later, there’ll be an american lady president, a black u.s. chief executive.) ironically, it’s the “phony” (to quote one favorite word of the black candidate) issue that’s been twisted & tortured & made to seem inevitable by the black prexy wannabe, obama.

one thing oregon voters--& the american electorate in general--must realize is that the afro-american is so astute & wily & deliberate in cultivating this “phony” issue, such that everything that hillary says & does is automatically labeled “racist” & thus raking up a “phony” issue. this even while hillary is always put on the defensive by her enemy’s knee-jerk, habitual, consistent employment of the race card & the complementing equally destructive sexism weapon, w/ hillary always at the receiving end.

to be sure, there are other issues & other weapons for hillary’s destruction that obama has skillfully nurtured as part of his vast arsenal of contraptions against hdc. designed to totally destroy, these WHDs are comparable to the late iraqi strongman, saddam hussein’s long-dreamt of WMDs. obama is a master of “psy-war,” using tactics & strategies that are better suited for a low-road campaign, all slanted towards making hillary look like a witch, & himself (obama) a halo’d saint, so to say.

you, oregon voters & the rest of the american electorate have, by now, read, of course, joan vennochi’s highly revealing news feature (titled “the change we can believe in?”—yes, in a question mark!) on the wily obama in the may 11, 2008 edition of the boston globe, have you? the self-declared “change agent” is unmasked as a “phony” messiah, ditching his pastor wright when it was politically convenient to do so; discouraging revotes in michigan & florida since it would help hillary, not him; & dishing out ordinary political carpetbagger’s spoutings; his flap, if double-faced ways, on nafta; his equally double-standard behavior towards lobbyists when he was a state & u.s. senator, & now as prexy wannabe; & other dr. jekkyl-mr.hyde track record on other issues. (other equally revealing accounts about obama have seen the light of print, i just wonder why you, the great american people, choose to still paint obama as lily-white.)

& yet you, oregon voters, you american people would rather fall for this phony man, who’s a master at pulling everybody’s legs, who’s only expertise is a glib-tongued oratorical prowess?

is this the candidate you want, a black fakir of a snake oil salesman? & you’d ignore, even demonize, the decidedly better-prepared, better qualified nominee like hillary rodham clinton?

better wake up, guys, get back to your senses, before you regret your decision, before it’s too late.

[mle]

Answer this, Hillary supporters - six months ago in December, who did the polls show would win the Democratic party nomination? How accurate are those six months later in May '08?

And for you so-called Democrats clamoring to vote for McCain in November, why the bitter attitude? Stop whining. Stick to your guns and vote for McCain with pride and happiness like all the idiots who voted for Bush in '00 and '04. And don't complain if he wins - be proud of the vote you made for U.S jobs, women's rights, our fighting soldiers, our gas prices, our energy policies, etc. Live with it for four more years with a smile - you can make it happen.

I know I'll be proud of my vote regardless, but you worry about showing those elitist Obama supporters who's boss, you smart tools, you :-)

[Benjamin]

Ryan said "Almost all Republicans know Obama would be a disaster for our country."

Ryan, after the last 8 years if there is one thing that is obvious, it's that republicans don't know how to run a country, let alone who would be good at running the country. We currently have the worst president since Herbert Hoover and you want us all to care what the republican opinion is? Republicans have no credibility right now. They spent it all on a Bush's folly, the invasion of Iraq and ignored the massive corporate corruption at every level of the country, from the mortgage lenders up to the derivatives trade.

Now we are sadlled with record debts and deficits and we're bleeding money in a war with Iraq while we're simultaneously entering the retirement of the baby boomers. Republicans know two things about what makes a good leader, Jack and s**t, and Jack just left town.

[awlswll]

Rove knows the electoral map better than anyone. How do you think Bush got elected twice? The SuperDelegates "in-the-know" are fully aware of this issue w/Obama and this could easily turn up at the convention.
Remember: It took a Clinton to clean-up after Bush I and it will take another Clinton to clean-up after Bush II.

[Mike]

This is so transparent that it's hardly worthy of a Karl Rove tactic. At this point Obama has the nomination virtually locked up. Rove digs up some stats to support a candidate that will not get nominated, causing her supporters to be disillusioned by the whole process, creating further division within the Democratic party, weakening Obama's support for general election.

The scary part is, there are only two possible conclusions to draw regarding Clinton - either she is unable to see through Rove's tricks, which makes me question her intelligence, or she is fully aware of this and is behind the concept of furthering the divide, which gives me chills. So she's either dumb or evil, neither of which are very glowing conclusions.

[allison, california]

Rove's map is not the only indicator showing Obama would lose to McCain but McCain would lose to Hillary.
Infact such indicator is even stronger!
Check this more netral source:

www.http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Go Hillary! Go McCain!

[Digangi]

Hillary and Bill know something that we all may not know. How can one trail in popular votes, trail in pledged delegates, trail in number of states won and trail in the number of super delegates claim to be the best than one who has achieved all those accolades? And all given by the people/voters rather than self-claimed. Whose intelligence is she trying to play with?

It is wrong and stupid to assume that because Bill Clinton survived the impeachment, Hillary will survive the second rate performance in the nomination. Bill was saved not by his genius or persistence but by the majority of the democratic supporters that were behind him. Such majority supporters are no longer with the Clintons but Barack. How much does it take for Bill and hillary to figure to figure this? Shame on them.

[EyeDubya]

Wrap a blatant falsehood with truth, and the gullible will swallow — that's the Rove strategy. That's exactly what he has done with these maps. For the most part, the maps render truly the current balance among the candidates, with two very notable exceptions. There is no way that Obama will lose Iowa and Wisconsin, and there's plenty of existing polling to color these states Blue should he be the nominee. Rove must lie about these two states to give aid and comfort to the Clinton camp. Why else do you think that Clinton campaign chief Terry McAuliffe cut an endorsement spot for Faux News Channel stating that it was indeed "Fair & Balanced"?

Lest anyone forget, FNC Overlord Rupert Murdoch played host to a Clinton fundraiser last year. Murdoch, Rove & Co. want to prevent at all costs the nomination of Obama, the one candidate who would offer Americans a chance to repudiate the Bush legacy utterly.

[Fernando F.]

Rove is going to say that Hillary is the strongest Democratic candidate because he thinks Democratic people will vote for her believing she will defeat McCain. Please! Is just the opposite. Rove is never going to say that Obama is the strongest so he can win the nomination and defeat McCain. American People: he is just lying!!! Is a trick. Nobody says out loud what is his weakness. He is a strategist.

[T Ross]

Clinton supporters are off their rockers ! Do they not realize that Rove is A Republican who wants to the white house to remain republican, therefore he tries his best to persuade the under-informed Billary Clinton nut jobs that they have the "best chance to beat McCain", thereby causing said under-informed to make even worse endorsements of a candidate who was dead in the water long before her campaign even started!?

Or do they not care to question the status quo because it makes life a lot easer ( in the short run that is)?

[John Thomas]

Rove is such a genius, that his political maoeuverings helped the Republicans loose both the house and senate in 2006, and has set up the Republicans to loose not only a vast majority of other government seats, but the presidency as well. Lets hope he keeps helping the Republicans for years to come.

[T Ross]

Mike Diaz-

Do not, in the same statement, claim to be a democrat and then write that you will vote McCain if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

From that statement it is clear that you are a cretin on your best day!

[EmilyD]

Please tell us why you neglected to mention in your article that Karl Rove has been consulting for John McCain for months now? That fact certainly colors Mr. Rove's map and everything he says with the tinge of conflict-of-interest. For more than 91 days Think Progress (www.thinkprogress.org) has been tracking the fact that Fox News has also omitted this fact about Rove when he appears as a talking head on the network. I hate to think that the LA Times has become as "fair and balanced" with it's reporting as Fox News is. Personally I'd prefer ACCURATE!

[Chris]

This is hysterical ! I just can't stop laughing while watching so many democrats beat themselves up ! All 3 candidates are losers. Nader just doesn't count. How about Ron Paul. Another idiot. We are approaching some very dark days as far as our gov't is headed. Hopefully after 4 years of idiocy another Reagan will emerge. And, maybe the republicans can fix the mess you've created.

[PrakashP]

No Matter what GOP will loose this election. Any one can easily win this election against GOP, American people are fed up with Bush and want to remove the party of the white house as soon as possible. So no matter who is Dem nominee, Clinton or Obama or some XYZ, they can have a easy victory.

[Sonny James]

I don't get it.

If Karl Rove....Bush's Top Strategist... is so smart, why is Bush...the worse president in U.S. History?

[mike king]

Republicans
A very large portion of the posters here wouldn’t make the same remarks in mixed company or are oblivious to the hate spewing forth either from one direction or the other.
Fortunately, extreme intolerance coupled with “Decider” arrogance has insulted the majority of Americans and will be apparent either in the polls or on the streets.
The more Republican extremists “hate” Obama, the Centrist voters are pushed to him. Lets face it, he’s a Senator with good standing, good service and is a thoughtful man. The more the fools demonize him, the more fanatical they appear.

ObamaFreaks
Listen to your candidate! If we are to come to a common greater good, it takes inclusion not derision.
McCain is a good Senator with good standing, good service and a message that he is committed to. So is Obama. I seriously doubt either would approve of or repeat most the content in this blog

Hillary Fantatics
Hillary is a Senator with good standing, good service and a large fanatically protective following that has hurt her more than helped her. Unfortnately, Hillary would (does) approve of the diatribe and kitchen sunk gutter politics. Which is the deciding factor in her current position. Like it or not – you Hillary or die fanatics sunk your own boat.

The two candidates offer completely difference choices in a path to the future. The path will be decided in 2008.
Rather than having fun “flaming” Obama ...

Republicans must consider having to answer for the last eight years - that pain is real, current and unaddressed. Obama may or may not be the perfect choice, but show us the good the Republican way will bring - not the hate, economic oppression and arrogance we have had enough of already. We will not be bullied again! You have a great deal to account for.

Hillary Democrats – if you vote for the Republican agenda, you deserve the fool of the century award for cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Consider … who would have thought American could go so wrong in just eight years?
More of the same is suicide.

Yes “Change” is uncertain. However; the alternative is certain to deliver more of what got us dead, drained and broke even faster.

As we move into a direct comparison in the general election, I suspect the Dems only need to ask ... “Do want more of the same?”

It will be interesting to hear the Republican explanation that catastrophic mismanagement provides superior certainty based upon the fruits of their illustrious experience. Not a compelling argument for most of us....

[Bob]

Is Hillary still a viable long-shot? Perhaps, with about the same odds that a three-legged horse could win the Triple-Crown!

A house could fall on Obama! lol

Hillary's main impetus for staying in the race is the perverted pleasure she receives basking in the rays of notoriety.

She’ll get a clue eventually, throw in the towel, and scurry-on back to NY to catch-up on her “con-job” there!

http://klintons.com

[Tom in California]

Hillary Clinton quoting Karl Rove to support her candidacy! What a hoot! She's REALLY running on empty!

[mike tan]

as Asian/Indonesian imigrant I wil tell you obama supporters my suggestions. If I have a right to vote, I would not vote for obama and here is why. One, he spent his childhood in Indonesia, where I came from. He knew the Indonesian politic and corruption and he's demonstrating it now. He's a fake leader and corrupted, just like Indonesian ex- president. he manipulated and outsmarting the political system, that's why he has so many votes with the youngsters because young people did not read the news and did not know the fact and around the world and especially Indonesian make a joke and laugh if he's a president. Did you all people know that his name is a Muslim name. I have been spent my life in Indonesia and you know that raise me a flag. his corruption with tony ruzka, his bad pastor, he's already form a radical club. I could go on and on but I could not vote anyway. If I could I would vote for Clinton. she's the best person. I hope American people wake up.

[dave]

so they all commend each other on being political geniuses, duping, mocking and playing the gullible people.
obama, clinton, mccain...all players for the same new world order club. there's ample financial profit in it for each one of them, even those who get to play the minor roles in this staged drama that keeps getting more insane as longer this carries on - but this too is strategy: creating maximum confusion by ceaseless bombardment with absurdity, to get people to accept anything in the end, even if this might be the lowest common denominator, and to their detriment.
but more and more people see through this game, and get informed about the vital message of the media tabooed, prohibited and marginalized, but only valid candidate for PRESIDENT, RON PAUL.

[Marianne Menter]

The Election 2008 drama is fast becomong the stuff of afternoon television! Desperate Hillary is courting nasty Karl Rove? I am actually saddened. The Clinton's have had their day in the sun. and for their time in history, it was a good one. As centrists leading a nation mired in post-Reagan conservative orthodoxy, theirs was a clear view of elusive moderation. Bill Clinton salvaged a bankrupt economy while losing Congress to the Gingrich "Contract with America." After the Gi ngrich coronation, Bill Clinton spent most of his term fighting for his political life amid the slings and arrows of the de facto government imposed by Gingrich and his Congressional Republicans. The stolen election of 2000 brought still another Republican rise to power, along with Bush's endless war in Iraq, duly authorized by Hillary Clinnton. One of the marks of a truly great performer is knowing when to bow out. Hillary's increasingly shrill and delusional insistence that she has the self-defined "popular vote" flies in the face of her previous backroom scheming for the superdelegate count as she realized that by most people's math, she was no longer in command of the popular vote. It is time for Hillary to bow out. Her best remaining "win" is to step aside so the party can unite behind the candidate who must defeat McCain and his Republican attack machine in November. That candidate is Barak Obama. To see Clinton embrace Karl Rove is to realize that she will consort with anyone or anything in order to "win." Yes, it is time for change! Say good night to Hillary, and show politics as usual out the door.

[Patrick Reynolds]

Mr. Malcolm,
You say that Mr. Rove is "the Republican Svengali of modern American politics." I say that you're a clown and an unoriginal one at that. In the most recent national election, the GOP got trounced and Mr. Rove could not prevent it nor did he admit to seeing it coming.
Oh, but I see why you failed to mention this in your article. It's much more sensational the way you wrote it. You're pathetic!