Rove’s Legacy: Media Spin Master
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General Politics, HistoryI remember when Bush first got elected…and for several months there I was impressed at how tightly controlled the message was. And while I certainly wasn’t a fan of the man…I was a fan of the plan to make him seem like he was completely in control.
But who was responsible? Surely it wasn’t Bush.
That’s when I found out about Karl Rove, and started to discover how he deftly spun the media wherever he went. Sure, there were naysayers, but they were usually relegated to the dustbins of history.
And so it’s fitting that for one of Rove’s final acts…he controlled the message yet again…
WASHINGTON On the day it was revealed that the man credited with putting President Bush in the White House was quitting, there were no banner headlines in the country’s major newspapers. There was no mention of it on the front page of The Washington Post, The New York Times or USA Today.That’s because Karl Rove, Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, chose to quietly make the announcement through an interview with longtime acquaintance Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal. [...]
The Journal, which is owned by Dow Jones & Co., told readers on the front page of its Monday editions to turn to the editorial pages for the “why” behind the Rove story. There, Gigot revealed Rove’s resignation in a lengthy recap of his soft-hitting interview with the longtime Bush adviser, held in Rove’s “book-lined living room of his townhome on Saturday afternoon.” [...]
“Rove has done this very skillfully, he’s the master of spin,” said Louis Ureneck, chair of the journalism department at Boston University. “He selected a friendly environment in which to make his announcement and in a sense control the message. If he had told a reporter, he likely would have faced tougher questions.”
I admire not the deeds, but his ability to do it for so long and get Bush elected twice. That feat along makes him a genius, as much as it makes me cringe to say that word in the same sentence with Rove’s name.
However, what his legacy will ultimately be is just that…a master of spin. Because not only did he spin the country into 8 years of Bush, but he also spun the GOP right out of the majority, possibly for years to come.
And there you have it.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 and is filed under General Politics, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Hey, Justin, et all,
Why do you think there is so little talk about the possibility that Rove was strategically pushed out by the GOP to get rid of an albatross around the necks of the GOP Pres. candidates? There was so much buzz about that when Rumsfeld resigned, but the media seems to have swallowed the line that he wants to “spend more time with the family.” That seems to me to be obvious hogwash. Is he that good at media spin that he can avoid what seems to be the obvious?
August 15th, 2007 at 10:41 am
8 years of Bush: Tax Cuts and fine prosperity, after an irrational dot.com bubble bust; pro-life judges on the Supreme Court; a big 9/11 wake up call about Islamofascist terrorism and the liberation of Afghanistan & Iraq — unlike the no-US action Rwandan genocide of the prior Dem. President.
Bush, and thus Rove, will probably look a lot better in history. Sort of like how the prior corrupt Reps don’t look much more corrupt than the current corrupt Dems, although of course a biased anti-Rep blog like this one won’t mention that as much as Glenn R., for instance.
If a Rep is elected pres. in 2008, I suspect Rove might admit that losing Congress in 2006 was the only way he saw such a possible result.
August 15th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Haha…anti-republican blog? You gotta be kidding me…you and way over half the posters here are as red as they come. Of course I’m very much on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Let me interpret your positive results:
1. Tax cuts and fine prosperity = new Lexus’s for everyone making over $200k a year and doubling the national debt, while relative income for the middle and lower class continues to decline against inflation.
2. Pro life judges on the Supreme Court = more unwanted babies from poor people unable to travel to another state for an abortion while the rich can and do get one whenever needed. Meanwhile, the support structure for those unwanted babies has systematically been dismantled under Republican control.
3. 9/11 wake-up call about Islamofascist terrorism = ridiculous and inappropriate responses targeting Moslems who had nothing to do with the event, causing a resurgence in anti-American sentiment among Moslems everywhere, and fueling an increase in terrorism worldwide, not to mention crippling our military and making us incapable of responding to any new threat. Of course the fact that Bin Ladin and Al Qaeda are still at large and stronger than ever shouldn’t be overlooked either.
4. Liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq = we went and bombed their infrastructure into rubble, then gave huge contracts to American companies with no oversight (thus leaving Iraq with huge unemployment - breeding grounds for insurgents), put Republican cronies with no experience or credentials in charge of rebuilding (who of course totalled farked it up), and have ended up with Afghanistan effectively back under Taliban control and Iraq embroiled in a massive civil war, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead and millions having fled, along with thousands of our troops dead and tens of thousands crippled.
5. Bush and Rove will probably look a lot better in history = It would be hard to look worse…and they’ve made sure none of their incriminating documents will ever be released by destroying them in violation of the Presidential Records Act.
6. Rove might admit losing Congress in 2006 was the only way he saw such a possible result = A man unwilling to admit he is wrong trying to save face after his actions have brought horrific and long lasting devastation to the middle east, our economy, our image in the rest of the world, and our national conscience, all in the name of making sure that people with lots of money get even more.
Rather ironic…but my Captcha phrase is “Communist always.” Is someone trying to tell me something?
August 15th, 2007 at 11:22 am
If the Iraqi project becomes successful, then surely this will be true. In fact, I don’t think history will even remember Karl Rove at all, for that matter, Harry Reid, John Murtha and other 2nd tier political players.
Who here knows who Clement L. Valladigham is, or Robert A. Taft ?
August 15th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
If this is more than a pure judgement call, prove it. The Dems have been in power for a grand total of how long? 7 months?
We need examples please.
Thanks.
August 16th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Let’s see, how about William Jefferson (D-LA):
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/06/04/congressman-headed-for-the-cooler/
“Democratic Congressman William “the Refrigerator” Jefferson of Louisiana finally faces 16 charges of being a crook — nearly 2 years after the FBI found $90,000 in cold cash in his freezer.”
But the main corruption is in earmarks — so Murtha immediately comes to mind. Did I miss your notes about these Dems? (Haven’t been coming by so much lately…)