Karl Rove: Barack Obama Preparing Vicious 2012 Election Battle Against GOP Candidate

Karl Rove predicted the 2012 presidential race would be vicious, claiming the Republican candidate will face a harsh election battle thanks to President Barack Obama's "hard-nosed Chicago pols."

The former White House deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush said Obama has "walked out on his daytime job" to focus exclusively on reelection and is ready to subject the GOP nominee "to the worst beating of their life, every day for roughly 11 months" in an interview with Newsmax. Rove said that while Obama is "very smart," he's "not a mere mortal, in his mind."

Discussing the deficit reduction efforts, Rove said Obama "made a fundamental mistake" by not getting more involved. Rove said he believes Obama chose not to do more to help with the debt crisis because "there was no upside for him to be involved."

"If he had gotten involved and achieved $1.2 trillion in real savings, it would have fired up the markets, given confidence that America is tackling its economic challenges and particularly its entitlement challenges, and would have put him in a better place for his reelection," Rove said.

Rove -- who has offered up advice to Obama before -- said that Obama has a chance at being reelected because "he's willing to say and do anything in order to get reelected."

"I'd say it's 55 percent that he doesn't get reelected, 45 percent that he might, and it's going to be a very close-run thing," Rove said.

Rove said he wasn't sure which candidate would earn the Republican nomination, but predicted a frontrunner would emerge sometime before the Iowa caucuses in January.

"We don't know," Rove said. "That's what we have these elections about, and I suspect in the next 30 some-odd days left before the vote in Iowa we're going to learn a lot about the capacity of these people to run a strong, effective campaign."

Obama wasn't the only target of Rove's criticism during the interview. The influential Republican also had harsh words for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, calling them "a group of nuts and lunatics."

 

Comments

[danlounyc]

09:24 PM on 12/11/2011

If anyone knows VICIOUS it is Rove. he is the lowest when it comes to attack ads and lies.

[Jeffrey Bryson]

05:00 PM on 12/04/2011

I hope that the President does run a brutal campaign against the eventual GOP nominee. From what I've seen, there's not a one that I'd trust with the family checkbook, much less the largest economy in the world. Now is not the time to show weakness, or to err on the side of fairness against a GOP machine that has never shown such compunctions.

[musoleK]

05:12 AM on 12/03/2011

He ASSumes that because that's how Rove does things and thinks Obamas campaign will.

[Henwood]

03:05 PM on 12/02/2011

Why isn't KR in jail yet?
As a matter of fact, why aren't Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in jail yet either?

[danlounyc]

09:25 PM on 12/11/2011

Exactly right..add Rice to that list and why isnt the World Court in on this?

[Henwood]

08:02 AM on 12/12/2011

The US are practically the only country that hasn't ratified the UN Convention on the "World Court" yet. They want to be able to send the marines anywhere and get away with it. Unfortunately, this policy hasn't changed under Obama.

[mzkitti]

02:18 PM on 12/02/2011

In a must-read op-ed on Bloomberg News today, successful entrepreneur and bona fide member of the 1 Percent Nick Hanauer destroys the Republican argument:

I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.

Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

[Rollingstone423]

10:10 AM on 12/02/2011

Throw Karl Rove in Jail along with Bush and Cheney! Then throw Obama in Jail! They are all crooks and murderers

[MosesDidItBest]

09:38 AM on 12/02/2011

It's been asserted that Karl Rove was Bush's brain and I'm not surprised given that Bush was the worst president in our history according to 238 historians, Gingrich not included.

If Rove was so smart how was it that we went from surplus to deficit in short order, lost millions of jobs, engaged in two wars simultaneously that went unpaid for while serving up trillions in tax cuts to the top 2%?

This is the brain behind Cheney's assertion that the war in Iraq would take amonth and cost a billion to be repaid with Iraqui petro dollars and that US Forces would be welcomed as liberators.

Between deregulation and criminal activity on wall street and the banks for years under Bush's watch the disaster they had been warned of in writing by leading economists in writing including a nobel prize winner in economics went unheeded.

We are now living Karl Rove's wet dream with a permanent GOP FOX propaganda cable news show.

Let's not forget Valerie Plame, so much for treason being a capital offense especially if you're the VP or Prez.

So much for smart.

[nopojoe]

07:21 PM on 12/02/2011

Thank you for reminding us with a reasoned reply. Often the discussion is name calling. What you remind us of is a litany of the offenses of the Bush Presidency, and the attempts of the Republican machine to somehow burden the current administration with the problems resulting from Bush/Rove/Cheney et all.

[batmanindy]

01:01 AM on 12/02/2011

So, who really cares?

[mbowland1]

07:47 PM on 12/01/2011

Barack has tried to work with the tea-baggers. They/GOP made it clear they would NOT work with him. Their stated goal is to destroy our President and in doing so, the country!
What a bunch of blatant HYPOCRITES!

[dragucci]

06:54 PM on 12/01/2011

Ghee whiz Karl your flair for the obvious is just striking!Considering the parasite Vermon the pres will have slithering around his feet ,of course he will have adequate neh palm to destroy it.Lets face it Karl your just pissed you not on the re election side and stuck literally on the bottom looking up,ciao.

[Joe Goforth]

02:30 PM on 12/01/2011

It's clear from the politician of politicians that Obama is a politician whats new? He is certainly more of a politician than a true leader or the country wouldn't be in the mess it's in now.

[mandolino]

01:04 PM on 12/01/2011

Is Karl Rove the most hypocritical non-elected opinion-generator in America? Possibly not, but he's most certainly a contender.

[msbeal]

12:38 PM on 12/01/2011

Never listen to a guy's advice whose income depends on convincing you to take his advice.

Used car salesmen rank higher than this putz.

[Gestas]

12:32 PM on 12/01/2011

I'd keep an eye on Karl Rove and listen to what he has to say...Never forget this is the guy that turned Cheneys PET ROCK into a two (2) TERM President.. That is something we should never forget.

[Albert James II]

11:48 AM on 12/01/2011

Right Karl. Spending 1.2 trillion dollars less in the economy would make it much better. May I ask: How are things in your world/