…has favored us by allowing a few, miniscule drops of his superior wisdom to mingle  down amongst us common folk.  Crumbs swept from his banquet table for us scrambling masses to devour.   In this past Thursdays WSJ the good Rev. Rove has proclaimed “The New Rules for Politics”.   This is the same K. Rove that, prior to 11/7/06, must’ve sat at a green felt table in a dimly lit, smoke filled back room and confidently pushed the entire stack of GOP chips to the middle of the table and said, “I call”.  Then on that fateful day in November, when the opponent slammed down a full house across the table,  Karl presented his hand – a pair of 2’s.   That pair of 2’s representing the way over rated Hispanic vote.  The Hispanic vote that Karl and “W” were  certain would save the Republican Party.  After all they had sat together, mesmerized on May Day 2006 watching the tube together.  “There they are!”,  they said.  The throngs marching through the streets of U.S. cities  waving Mexican flags and burning U.S. flags!  Both Karl and “W” jumping to their feet proclaiming, “that’s our future!”.    As the Teletubbies would say, “UH  OOOHH!”.   Karl, the boy genius,  forgot something very important.  Probably 90% of those street marchers were in the country illegally and were not eligible to vote! Unlike the Minutemen who Karl and “W”  slandered as vigilantes who were eligible.  And the remainder of the former GOP voting base of which both Karl and “W” have not spared  insults and a disrespectful tone towards, starting on 1/21/05.

So now the sanctimonious Mr. Rove wants to tell us “how it will be” after he, President Bush and a few others in the GOP Hierarchy have all but destroyed  “our” GOP!   Ok.  Lets give him the respect that he would not give us in the GOP voting base.  Lets hear him out. 

(you might want to open up the above link to Karl’s WSJ article so you can follow along)

First on Karl’s list:

1)  “The Big Bounce = Gone”  Meaning, as I understand it, the significance of the Iowa/NH/S.Carolina  primaries is not what it used to be.  And might as well throw in Florida now.   I wish that were true but I don’t fully accept that.  And I believe it has to do with the Independent voters being allowed to vote for either party in these states.  And one would be naïve if they didn’t know that many democrats will cross over and vote as independents for the weakest GOP candidate.  They are urged to do so.  Don’t believe me?  Check this out.  I don’t believe that Mr. Rove is acknowledging the manipulation factor.  It is a significant factor and difficult to know what, exactly, to do about it.  If you couple this Independent voter factor along with the Main Stream Media’s Most-Favored-Candidate status (obviously John McCain for the GOP side) and the fact that Iowa, NH are traditionally “Blue” states and Florida being a “Purple” borderline state, one could almost conclude that the whole process is, well, almost rigged.    Most definitely these factors played a roll in pushing out Thompson, Tancredo and Hunter.  Had these 3 been able to hang in there until after the Texas primary  on 3/4/08 the dynamic of the entire campaign would have changed.  Come convention time there would have been a true “climate change” at the brokering tables.  I feel Mr.Rove’s  claim here is too simplistic. 

2) “Television Ads Don’t Matter As Much as They Used To”:   In your dreams Mr. Rove.  In your dreams.  The reason that they “don’t matter” is because they are so pathetically produced.  Nothing but a bunch of Rah! Rah! Wave the Flag!,  pep-rally crap topped off with a few generalities.  Nothing hard hitting or meaningful.  That’s why they’re ignored.  The one exception during this campaign was Mike Huckabee’s floating cross.   And he claims that was an unplanned accident.   Mr. Rove, the number of households with a TV is almost 112 million.  To get your message to the people, one must go where these people are.  Where are they?  At a political rally?   No!  You’ll find a whole lot of folks sitting on their couch with a remote in their hand.  Mostly because that’s all they can afford to do anymore.  So that is where you must take your message.  To them.   And, yes, it costs money but there are ways to “ease into it” without it costing an arm/leg.  Get over it, Mr. Rove.  A good candidate had best learn that the most important person on his staff is an effective fundraiser.  Effective fundraisers need to be sought out by political campaigns wherever they can be found.    This shortfall is what also contributed to the demise of the Thompson, Hunter and Tancredo campaigns.  These gents thought they could simply stand behind a lectern and speak profundities and that’s all that was needed.  Such a pity. 

3) “Technology Allows a Candidate to Raise Money Quickly and Inexpensively”:    I’ve was suspect of this internet fundraising when Howard Dean was pioneering this concept back in ’04 and, now especially, with the Ron Paul campaign.  Something simply doesn’t smell right about it.  Its too easy for a candidate, campaigns or donors to bend or break election fundraising rules.  One day someone will figure out how to investigate this “process”  and I believe the lid will be blown off.  We’ll find all sorts of  donors that are not eligible to donate.  We’ll see money and/or support coming in from foreign donors (like the Ukraine, Dr. Paul!) trying to influence our nations elections.

However, I have to concede that Mr. Rove may have a point here.  But I don’t see it as so significant.  More important that a candidate be able to receive donations from any or all of the avenues that they may travel in upon. 

4) “Debates are a Great Way to Come on Late and Make Up for Lack of Endorsements or Resources”:   What a load of crap, Mr. Rove.  These, too numerous, debates have been controlled and manipulated by the democrat/left leaning Main Stream Media from the start.  I’d be willing to bet that forces within the DNC have been working behind the scenes  along with their cohorts in the MSM to disrupt and negatively influence the GOP debates.  And its worked, in my humble opinion.  The GOP candidates have appeared like bulls being lead around with a rings in their noses.   Some of the good, lower tier candidates were purposely minimized and diminished from the very beginning.  And when the moderators were forced to ask them a question, it was something trivial or boring.  And that affected these candidates entire campaign in a negative way.  In the future I hope the GOP has enough backbone to make certain demands regarding the debate process.   Fewer debates, for one.  And the left leaning MSM must be taken out of the process. Or if not the GOP maybe some of the individual candidates.  Fred Thompson came close when refusing to raise his hand in Iowa.   Hot dogs like Chris Matthews are trying for another notch on their pistol grip and to make a name for themselves.  They have no sense of  fairness or of the importance of the event.   They’re dirt bags!  Such an important event shouldn’t be turned over to such. 

Ok. Something just went off in my brain.  Oh. I see.  I’m up to about or just over 1200 words.  I’ll have to finish this under “Part 2:  The Revered K. Rove….”  See ya’ next week!   Darvin Dowdy