Anyone notice that the so-called genius, Rove, is flailing and failing?

[patcox2]

Rove's tactics are all based on short, vague slogans, repeated relentlessly by the supposedly "focused" and "on message" W (that description is itself an example of Rovian spin, W sticks to the simple script because he is stupid, not because he is focused).

But has anyone noticed how consistently the scripts have fallen flat lately? Starting with the Mars fiasco, which produced nothing but derision, Bush's rhetorical strategies have all failed.

"Turning the corner," abandoned in less than two weeks, ridiculed by cartoonists and pundits.

"Peace president." Laughed off and abandoned in two days.

"Ownership society" and the Social Security proposal, completely ignored, except by those who criticized it, going nowhere.

Even his efforts to exploit the gay marriage wedge issue have fallen by the wayside.

The press seems resistant to even mention his "don't change horses midstream - "If you don't re-elect Bush, the terrorists will get us" meme (they report the alerts, but with noticeable scepticism, even George Will criticized the way they were announced).

Can anyone think of any more?

Rove/Bush have been struggling in vain to find an issue or a slogan or anything, anything at all, which creates some buzz or enthusiasm, and they are faling, completely. They have gotten no "traction" with any of their messages. The only thing, the only thing they have, is attacks on Kerry.

[Spinzonner]

1. Does he still have time to dump Shrub before the Convention ?

[soothsayer]

2. i'd love to see that fat F's fat head explode, ala Scanners, while trying

to think of new slogans for dumbass. Kaboom!

[deutsey]

3. That's what concerns me

Rove cannot accept defeat. What's he got in mind to ensure "victory" this fall?

[SoDesuKa]

4. The Failure is Bush, not Rove

Rove has to have something to work with, but Bush is no longer an unknown. He's no damn good.

There are limits to how much that can be done to re-package a failed presidency. Everything Bush has done has turned to shit. Rove can't hide that.

[July]

14. Yeah, but Rove is offering slogans and smears, not substance.

Eventually, that house of cards falls down. So they're both failures in my book.

Rove's the Mayberry Machiavelli (thank you, John DiIulio), emphasis on Mayberry (not to diss that funny Mayberry gang, but you know what DiIulio was driving at!). He and Bush aren't doing any real presidentin', so at some point the con falls apart.

[displacedtexan]

5. Rove lost in 2000...

Why should this year be any different?

We've got to stop conceding Florida 2000 to Bush*!

Bush* did not win Florida.

[DemWitch]

6. Last night on Bravo was the West Wing episode where

Bartlet and whats his face debated. I thought it was quite pertinent to what os going on now. Bush said he doesn't like nuance. Kerry says that no problem is black and white.

At a part in the debate, Bartlet said, "there is it, the 10 word answer" then went on to say how easy it was to give a 10 word answer. The difficulty was the next 10 words, or the next 10 after that.

This is where Kerry I think will make a killing. Bush's greatest tactic is to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator, and pander to those who want quick easy answers. However, I think some, not all, but some, and this time around a majority, realize that answers to the problem we face can't be summed up in neat little catch phrases.

Bush can spout compassionate conservatism, ownership society, turning the corner, mission accomplished all he wants. I think, I hope, and I pray that enough people are finally waking up to the fact that a sound byte doesn't solve budget deficits, armed service people being killed, degradation of our civil rights, a health care system on the brink of collapse, and an entire generation getting screwed out of social security.

So, c'mon Rove... what's your next move?

[Cheswick2.0]

7. He LOST in 2000.......... James Baker is the reason bush is in office

Karl Rove has managed to capitalize on his own failures. That bush gang isn't too smart huh?

[allemand]

8. revealing passage in "Plan of Attack"

Page 250: Karl Rove, a Norwegian-American, is obsessed with the "historical duplicity" of the Swedes, who seized Norway back in 1814. This nationalism manifests itself as hatred for Swedish weapons inspector Hans Blix.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2099277/

Doesn't sound very rational to me.

[BillZBubb]

9. Rove has been hugely successful.

Don't kid yourself. He's got a client/candidate who is a bumbling illiterate. He's got a client/candidate who shirked military service running against a war hero. He's got a quagmire in Iraq. He's got an economy that hasn't done anything good for over three years. He's got to appease the Fundies. He's got a world that went from wanting to help us to hating our guts.

And in spite of all this, his client/candidate actually has a fair chance of winning the election. It's like he's running in the Kentucky Derby on a plow horse carrying an additional 100 lbs. yet is only a length behind in the stretch run. You don't have to like him (and I certainly don't) to appreciate that he is good at what he does.

[Hamlette]

10. Misery of deciding which kid to pick up first after 9/11

that was the dumbest thing I've heard this year. In an ad.

I don't know who in the world it resolates with.

[cynatnite]

11. Dumbing it Down

Biggest problem is the dumbing down is what they did before. I don't think it's playing well anymore.

Cyn:)

[gasperc]

12. forgot"winning the war on terror " painted on the buses

that was removed the next day when things in Iraq started flying out of control worse than their pea brains expected

[allemand]

13. On the other hand, how far does his influence really go?

As Brad DeLong posted some days ago:

"It is a substantial mystery--why there was nobody inside the Bush administration arguing for a good old-fashioned Keynesian fiscal stimulus program that got money to the people most likely to spend it. Even though their forecasts at the end of 2002 were predicting swift employment growth, there is always the questions, "What if something else bad happens?" You would certainly expect political operatives to ask it.

It is for this other other reasons that I find myself shifting my view of the George W. Bush administration. Political hacks seem to have less influence than I had thought. Anti-pragmatic ideologues--people who *know* what the truth is, *know* that it is sunny outside, and don't bother to raise the windowshade to check--have more influence than I had thought."

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/001314.html

[blondeatlast]

15. Even the media is wise to his tactics now. He's finished. nt