Karl Rove Media Meltdown Continues

Karl Rove’s now-infamous election night meltdown on Fox News, where he denied Romney had actually lost Ohio received a huge amount of attention. However, it appeared to be a one time phenomenon. After all, Rove, known as “Bush’s Brain” is widely considered to be one of the most astute political strategists in either party. But, as Dylan Byers at Politico reports, Rove seems to still be in denial about the results of Tuesday’s election:

GOP strategist Karl Rove went on Fox News today to argue that President Barack Obama “succeeded by suppressing the vote” — an argument that directly (and somewhat comically) contradicts the conventional wisdom that Romney failed to appeal to non-white and female voters.

Rove argued that Obama won with a smaller popular vote and a smaller margin of victory than in the 2008 election against Sen. John McCain. Instead of expanding voters, Rove argued, Obama “suppressed the vote” by demonizing former Gov. Mitt Romney and encouraging people not to vote.

This accusation is jaw-dropping in its chutzpah. Certainly both Obama and Romney ran very negative campaigns, which are traditionally believed to lower turnout but to say that Obama “suppressed the vote” is the height of hypocrisy. In past two years, Republicans, particularly in Ohio and Florida, have spearheaded attempts to change election law to reduce turnout. They’ve significantly cut down on the number of early voting days, made it more difficult to register to vote and passed voter ID legislation. This has all been considered to be a deliberate effort to prevent young and minority voters to turn out. These efforts failed and may have even backfired, particularly in the African-American community where turnout was even higher than it was in 2008.

Although Rove is a political partisan, he always been considered somewhat of an objective observer. He isn’t considered a political bomb thrower or a conspiracy theorist. He is still a Republican hack at the end of the day. Just as, for example, Paul Begala on CNN, who also actively advised superPACs this year is a Democratic hack. But while being a hack means a certain amount of cheerleading, it also means that a certain hard-eyed political cynicism is expected. Rove may present a rose-tinted view of reality but it’s still recognizably reality, not the alternate universe that Dick Morris lives in. But, if Rove’s post-election tailspin continues, he may lose that reputation entirely in his future punditry.

Share this article