here's what Rove has to say <G>...
weblogs.baltimoresun.com
Karl Rove: Americans seek ways to 'break barriers'
by Mark Silva
Karl Rove, "architect'' of President Bush's two winning presidential election campaigns, suggested today that the historic nature of the campaigns of both Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York work in their favor.
“Americans are looking for a way to break barriers,'' Rove said In an interview with National Public Radio's Tell Me More. "They would love to elect a woman president; they would love to elect an African-American president. And to the degree that either gender or race plays into this race, it plays far more in a positive direction than it does in a negative direction.”
Rove also told show host Michel Martin this about the outcome of New Hampshire's primary elections, in which Obama closely trailed Clinton after polling as the front-runner in pre-primary surveys following Obama's upset over Clinton in the premier Iowa caucuses:
"Let’s not have Obama suffer for the mistakes of the pollsters. If you talk to political pros, you would find that there was pretty solid agreement that it’s really tough to poll a primary.
"And particularly a primary in a state like New Hampshire where they are not just simply voters, but active players in the drama, and they know it,'' Rove said "So, you know, Senator Obama suffered a little bit from the expectations built up for him by the media that having won Iowa, and then looking at these polls, that he had double-digit leads in New Hampshire, that somehow or another it’s his fault that he didn’t live up to what the pollsters had predicted when the pollsters really had – we ought to take these polls with a grain of salt.”
On the factors behind Obama's loss to Clinton, Rove said: "Obama’s problem is not that he is – you know, he is an inspiring figure and an historic figure. That is not his problem.
"His problem is that he can... he deals with the concerns that people have about Hillary Clinton but he can’t close the argument, at least he didn’t in New Hampshire. He let the rhetoric soar, but it’s sort of like a lot of people probably said, well, you know, where is the beef.”
On the lack of a clear frontrunner among the Republicans: "We could enter Super Tuesday with three or four credible candidates, yes. In fact, look, last night’s results mean that both primary – both parties are going to have contests that exist through at least February 5th.”
Posted by Mark Silva on January 9, 2008 2:03 PM | Permalink |
