Karl Rove vs. Karl Rove
October 21, 2011 2:13 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
In his weekly column for the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove has written about how Obama is jeopardizing his chances for re-election by appearing too liberal or too populist, and that if he doesn't change his ways he'll turn off independent and "blue collar" voters.
The exercise is a bit silly since Rove, a professional partisan, wants Obama to lose re-election and wants Democrats to lose touch with independents. So why this charade about offering up sincere advice?
Well, now we know have clear evidence the advice isn't honest and that Rove's Journal column is something of a farce.
From Talking Points Media [emphasis added]:
American Crossroads, the big money GOP group founded by Karl Rove, is warning Republicans that President Obama's new campaign to raise taxes on millionaires is a political winner.
Under the header "Obama's New Class Warfare May Resonate," the group's director, Steven Law, cited their own polling data in a strategy memo to argue that the White House was gaining ground with its proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy.
"It may be the result of larger environmental conditions, or he may be moving the needle himself, but Obama's 'tax the rich' mantra is getting traction," Law wrote.
So partisan Republican operatives who work for a Karl Rove-founded group are nervous that Obama's recent turn to the left, and specifically his more populist rhetoric about taxing millionaires, "is getting traction."
But that sure doesn't square with Rove's recent observations in the Wall Street Journal. In one column he warned that Obama "damages himself" politically by "engaging in class warfare to push trillions in tax increases." And a deeply concerned Rove assured Democrats that in order for "the president to reconnect with the swing voters he desperately needs for victory," he had to avoid populist rhetoric.
Note to Democrats: Ignore Rove's advice.
If Rove thinks that Obama wanting to raise taxes on the rich in the country is a losing proposition, that means Obama should try and do it, and fast. Rove has lost touch with actual Americans. As mentioned before, a vast majority of Americans say to do it. If republicans were really listening to the "will of the people" as they claim they do, this would have been a done deal already.
But... They don't listen to the will of the people. They listen to Tea Party only at this point in time, which again, is FAR from being what mainstream America wants, or believes in.
Tea Partiers, Republicans, Independents, Democrats, Men, Women, and all other groups in this country supports the idea. The only group that doesn't? House and Senate Republicans - not a single one of them support it (publicly).
It's not that they don't like the idea, it's that high unemployment is the only thing that could help them win the 2012 election.
They know that none of the clowns running for their nomination will have a chance against Obama unless the unemployment number stays high.
"not a single one of them support it"
Statistically, where can you find complete unanimity in anything? Yet the Republicans in the Senate and House are completely unanimous. Not a single person of alternate opinion.
That suggests they are not acting or thinking of their own free will.
Perhaps they believe that if they can just keep the nation on a downward track, more voters will be swayed their way.
They surely do seem to be on that track.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio_paradox
So, what he says publicly is going to be based purely on the narrative that he hopes to create--that narrative being that supporting OWS-style policies is political suicide--rather than on what he knows to be true, which is that OWS-style policies are gaining in popularity and are not going away anytime soon, and that politicians who publicly oppose these types of populist movements won't fare well at election time.
We call that a "concern troll".