RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Karl Rove's very bad night

(Reuters) - As television networks began declaring that President Barack Obama had won re-election, the most captivating televised drama Tuesday evening played out on Fox News, where Republican strategist Karl Rove refused to believe the race between Obama and Mitt Romney was over.

"I think this is premature," said Rove, a former senior adviser to George W. Bush and architect of Bush's two successful runs for the White House.

"We know that Karl has a rooting interest," Fox host Chris Wallace replied.

More than a rooting interest: Rove was the most prolific fundraiser for Republican causes during the 2012 election cycle.

With the assistance of a few powerful Republican friends, Rove helped to secure an estimated $300 million for Republican candidates, hoping to help turn the White House over to Romney and control of the U.S. Senate to Republicans.

In a $6 billion campaign, Rove's ability to part wealthy Republicans from their money made the political operative - who co-founded the American Crossroads "Super PAC" - a force in the party's effort to take down Obama.

Democratic groups raised millions of dollars based on appeals that focused on the threat Rove and the Crossroads groups posed to Democrats.

As it turned out, Obama held the White House and in nine of the 10 Senate races where Rove's groups spent the most money, the Democratic candidate won.

On Wednesday, Republicans' discontent was evident.

Conservative activist Richard Viguerie said in a statement Wednesday that "in any logical universe," Rove "would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again and no one would give a dime to their ineffective Super PACs, such as American Crossroads."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Rove's group spent more than $1 million in 10 different Senate races.

At the top of that group, Crossroads spent $11.2 million opposing Senate candidate Tim Kaine in Virginia, $7 million opposing Representative Shelley Berkley in Nevada, and $6 million in both Ohio and Wisconsin, opposing Senator Sherrod Brown and Tammy Baldwin, a member of the House of Representatives who was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Only Berkley lost on Tuesday.

For months, Rove's commercials told Montanans that their U.S. senator, Jon Tester, was "a top recipient of campaign cash from lobbyists and big banks."

Missourians were instructed to tell their Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill, "to stop spending and cut the debt."

In those races, as in Florida and Indiana, Rove's candidate lost. Only in Nevada, where Senator Dean Heller was challenged by Berkley, did Rove assist with a victory in race where he invested more than $1 million.

According to calculations made by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that seeks more transparency in campaign finance, Rove's outfits provided dismal returns to investors.

By the group's measure, 1 percent of the more than $100 million spent by American Crossroads achieved its desired results. Thirteen percent of the more than $70 million spent by Crossroads GPS did the same, the Sunlight Foundation said.

With Obama retaining the White House and the Democrats winning many tight Senate races, other conservative spending groups faltered, just as Rove's did.

Only 5 percent of the money spent by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce resulted in its desired effect, as measured by the Sunlight Foundation.

'THIS THING WAS WON'

In an interview with Reuters earlier this year, Rove said he wanted Crossroads to be a "permanent presence" in U.S. politics, an organization that would work alongside the Republican Party and employ the party's top strategists while remaining an attractive home for the party's most influential donors.

In 2007, Rove resigned as Bush's deputy chief of staff amid questions about his role in the firing of a federal prosecutor. With Bush's legacy bruised even among his own party, the 2012 campaign provided Rove a shot at redemption.

Appearing on Fox News on Wednesday morning, Rove sifted for a few gems in the election's rubble.

He said Obama's margin of victory among young voters decreased in his second election. He said Obama is the first president to be re-elected with a smaller share of the vote than in his first election.

Saying that Romney had convinced voters he was a better leader and had a better vision than Obama, Rove offered a different spin on Romney's losing campaign.

"This thing," Rove said, "was won."

...Of the big polls followed by the Real Clear Politics website, Rasmussen also had significant misses:

Ohio -- Rasmussen: dead heat. Actual: Obama by 2.

Virginia -- Rasmussen: Romney +2. Actual: Obama by 3.

Iowa -- Rasmussen: Romney +1. Actual: Obama by 6.

Wisconsin -- Rasmussen: tie. Actual: Obama by 7.

Colorado -- Rasmussen: Romney +3. Actual: Obama by 5.

...

Heavily Armed Karl Rove Spotted At Top Of Electoral College Clock Tower



Sources confirmed this afternoon that a heavily armed Karl Rove has positioned himself atop the Electoral College clock tower and is planning to pick off at least 50 electors with a high-precision sniper rifle.

Wearing a black tactical ammunition vest with multiple submachine-gun magazine pouches, a holster containing an extra semiautomatic handgun, and several M67 grenades clipped to the chest, Rove reportedly walked up 27 floors to the top of the clock tower, which overlooks the Electoral College’s main quad area and offers the Republican strategist a perfect vantage point to assassinate electors as they exit the Swing State Dining Hall and the Twelfth Amendment Science Building.

Law enforcement officials said Rove appears to be primarily targeting Electoral College attendees from Ohio and Florida.

“Mr. Rove is armed, extremely dangerous, and, we believe, mentally ill,” said lead FBI agent Peter Coburn, adding that his team is working with Electoral College Campus Security to move the institution’s 538 enrolled electors out of harm’s way. “Several witnesses who saw Mr. Rove begin his ascent to the top of the clock tower said he looked stone-faced and was muttering something about making good on his promises to Republican super PAC donors everywhere and to Jesus Christ almighty.”

“We are currently unable to get inside the clock tower because Mr. Rove has destroyed several flights of stairs with plastic explosives,” Coburn added. “Either way, we are urging all Electoral College attendees to stay inside the Red and Blue Dormitory until further notice.”

According to FBI representatives, evidence of Rove’s assassination plot was discovered inside the Fox pundit’s off-campus studio apartment. Amidst old newspapers, weeks-old pizza boxes, and rats, agents said they found an Electoral College yearbook in which multiple faces had been crossed out with red X’s.

In addition, officials discovered several composition notebooks filled with Rove’s psychotic musings, including his 2004 plans to seize control of the entire country, and a passage in which he graphically describes how he wants to slit Electoral College president Nate Silver’s throat and then bathe in his blood while staring at his naked body in the bathroom mirror.

One notebook, sources confirmed, was just page after page of the words “Hamilton County” written over and over again.

“You don’t call a state with 991 votes between the candidates,” Rove wrote. “You don’t do that. You never do that. And if you do, I’m not the one who’s crazy. You’re the one who’s crazy. You are the one who must be stopped. You are part of the liberal conspiracy trying to take hold of this nation. And I will be the one to murder you and the children you wanted to abort. I will be the one who stops the madness. I will rain bullets and hellfire on your heads. Say goodbye.”

As the standoff continued, FBI agents said they were having difficulty getting through to Rove—a 2000 Electoral College graduate and basketball standout—and told reporters that special reinforcements needed to be brought in.

“Karl, come down from there,” said former president George W. Bush, shouting into a bullhorn. “I love you. And I know you love me. I would be devastated if I lost you, so don’t do something stupid. We just have to come to terms with the fact that the Republican Party needs to change dramatically in order to win these general elections. We have to be more inclusive. We can’t tell women how to live their lives, and we have to be more gay-friendly ”

At press time, Rove detonated one of his grenades, destroying the clock tower and sending his dismembered body parts cascading to the ground.

Alert reader GS and AAPOR colleague CP alerted me to an intriguing (and somewhat contentious) NPR interview of chief Republican strategist Karl Rove conducted last Tuesday by correspondent Robert Siegel. Whatever one might think about Rove's spin, his comments remind us that for all the data we have gathered here on Pollster.com, the party strategists have their own flow of data that remains hidden from public view.

According to the transcript, the interview kicks off with Rove, "responding to a question about public polls and analysis predicting a Republican loss in November:"

KARL ROVE: I see several things; first, unlike the general public, I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races and after all this does come down to individual contests between individual candidates. Second of all, I see the individual spending reports and contribution reports. For example at the end of August in 30 of the most competitive races in the country, the house races, the Republicans had 33 million cash on hand and Democrats had just over 14 million.

Siegel asked next about television advertising and their content. Then he came back to the topic of polls.

SIEGEL: We are in the home stretch though and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about...

ROVE: Not that you would be exhibiting a bias or anything like that, you're just making a comment, right?

SIEGEL: I'm looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

ROVE: No, you are not, no you're not, no you're not, you're not. I'm looking at 68 polls a week [for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor.]** You may be looking at 4 or 5 public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally but that do not impact the outcome of individual races.

SIEGEL: If you could name races between, certainly Senate races, all...

ROVE: Like the poll today that showing Corker's ahead in Tennessee or the poll showing Allen is pulling away in the Virginia Senate race.

SIEGEL: Leading Webb, in Virginia, yea...

ROVE: Yeah, exactly.

SIEGEL: ...you've seen the DeWine race and the Santorum race and, I don't want to...you call [the] races.

ROVE: I'm looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I'm entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don't know if we're entitled to a different math but your...

ROVE: I said THE math.

Now whatever one thinks of Rove's spin -- and I'm certainly dubious, at least with respect to the House -- he is probably not exaggerating the number of polls he sees a week in statewide and congressional races. The Republican campaign committees are likely conducting weekly tracking polls in at least a dozen competitive Senate races and 30 or more House contests. They have also probably fielded survey less frequently over the last month in another 40 to 50 less competitive House races to check their status. On top of that, many individual campaigns are sharing their own internal tracking polls privately with Rove and their national party.

The Democratic campaigns and the Democratic campaign committees have a similar research programs underway (and interests disclosed: my partners at Bennett, Petts & Blumenthal conduct some of the internal tracking polls for the DCCC and DSCC).

If you wanted to build the a true "dream" polling scorecard for the House, you would combine Rove's spreadsheet with the counterpart maintained by Rahm Emmanuel at the DCCC. The numbers in that combined scorecard spreadsheet would represent the collective efforts of the most pollsters with by far the most experience measuring preferences at the Congressional District level.

We cannot see that data, unfortunately, but we might be able to judge Rove's spin by the number of partisan polls that have been publicly released by the campaigns and party committees. Of the polls in our House database, 43 of the partisan polls released since Labor Day came from Democrats, only 11 from Republicans.

I am not giving away any trade secrets in pointing out that campaigns and party committees release internal polls only when they show good news for their candidates. Bad news rarely sees the light of day. If Rove's internal polls really add up to a "Republican House," it is hard to imagine we would not see more Republican polls showing it.

**I revised the "rush transcript" posted on NPR.org (also characterized as "transcribed excerpts") to include the discussion between Siegel and Rove on the races in Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The transcript omits that exchange and instead substitutes the phrase in brackets.

Correction: The original version of this post incorrectly reported the number of partisan polls released since Labor Day in our database as 47 from Democrats and 12 from Republicans. Apologies for the error.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/heavily-armed-karl-rove-spotted-at-top-of-electora,30309/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default

Yep. Too long to post, [but] Politico has a good piece on it: GOP's media cocoon .

colin powell/norm schwarzkopf for 2016~!

Fox News CEO issues orders to keep Rove off the air
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, December 5, 2012 11:05 EST Topics: karl rove ♦ Rove

Fox News Channel (FNC) is trying to reinvent itself in the wake of the 2012 election, and, according to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, phase one of the network’s makeover plan has already gone into effect. Chief of programming Bill Shine, acting on orders from network head Roger Ailes, has issued an edict to the network’s bookers and producers that no one is to book Republican author and pundit Dick Morris or former GOP kingmaker Karl Rove without his permission.

“The election’s over,” a Fox spokesperson told Sherman, and the biggest losers of all, apparently, are pundits like Rove and Morris, who believed their own PR spin about “skewed” polls and the size and enthusiasm of the crowds in Ohio, and who were honestly taken aback by the results on election night.

Ailes is reportedly highly displeased with Rove. The former Nixon aide and FNC founder held a meeting on the afternoon of the election in which he urged Rove, Megyn Kelly and other on-air personnel to hold it together while the cameras were rolling.


“Guys, if things don’t go your way tonight,” he told them, “don’t go out there looking like someone ran over your dog.”

Karl Rove’s on-air tantrum when the network called Ohio for President Barack Obama may have made for riveting, historic television, but Ailes, who Sherman describes as “a canny marketer and protector of his network’s brand,” apparently would prefer to avoid such scenes in the future.

nah. he cant predict the future. Hes doing the smart thing so they dont happen again.

When you hire political operatives like Rove who's super pacs had over a billion in defeating Obama is it really surprising that Rove was partisan? Ailes is having it both ways.

Karl Rove’s on-air tantrum when the network called Ohio for President Barack Obama may have made for riveting, historic television, but Ailes, who Sherman describes as “a canny marketer and protector of his network’s brand,” apparently would prefer to avoid such scenes in the future.

When you hire political operatives like Rove who's super pacs had over a billion in defeating Obama is it really surprising that Rove was partisan? Ailes is having it both ways.

Yeah yeah and MSNBC also has conservatives on it's network.

Sure I can. They have conservatives on just like FOX has some liberals on. I don't keep a scorecard of who is a little more partisan but I'm not aware of MSNBC having a Rove counterpart who spent over a billion in the elections.

There wasn't anything Ailes should have been surprised about with Rove and Morris. These are well known partisan conservatives who have long records of spin for their party. Rove was more than just a paid consultant for a super pac btw. He cofounded American Crossroads that spent huge sums of money in it's attempt to defeat Obama.

Dancing around my point WB. You downplay Rove's status with the super pacs but it still existed. I don't think there is a liberal equivalent to Rove being on FOX. He had over a billion in pac money invested in defeating Obama. Did Ailes have a problem with that before Romney lost?

Even the far-left Huffington Post acknowledges that the only difference in power and 501-C PACS billions is that the Democrats' won and the Republicans' lost in this 2012 round.