I’m curious whether Karl Rove thinks any Democrats died in the Twin Towers on 9/11 or during the 28 months of the war against the country that didn’t attack the United States on that day.
There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about how maybe Rove’s remarks are all part of some brilliant plan to draw out the Democrats. I think those who believe that are giving him way too much credit. Sure, Rove ran a very effective campaign (you try winning with that first term track record), but the second term he’s masterminding isn’t going so well.
Check out these approval ratings for presidents in the first March of their second term. Notice who’s bringing up the rear.
Truman, 1949: 57%.
Eisenhower, 1957: 65%.
Johnson, 1965: 69%.
Nixon, 1973: 57%.
Reagan, 1985: 56%.
Clinton, 1997: 59%.
Bush, 2005: 45%.
If Rove is indeed the Boy Genius, why is Bush now mired in the low 40s?
As a result of these plummeting numbers, the White House is in full panic mode. And it's not pretty. In fact, I believe in therapy it's called "projection."
For instance, regarding Rove's sneering contention that liberals responded to the terrorist attacks with calls for "indictments," Bill Scher from Liberal Oasis did find a few people who were of the opinion that terrorism is a matter for law enforcement: President Bush and Colin Powell. Here’s what Powell said on Stephanopoulos in March 2004:
[Bush] made it clear right after 9/11 that we all have to come together and go after these kinds of organizations, sometimes with military force, more often with law enforcement activities, intelligence activities, going after their financial infrastructure.
Karl, I could give you the name of a good therapist who could help you with this projection problem.
Meanwhile, the strategy behind Rove’s remarks was nailed by this post on AmericaBlog:
It's very simple: George Bush has had almost four years to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden. He's failed miserably. Since George Bush is too weak to attack Bin Laden, he's attacking Americans.
In fact, even though not a single Democrat that I know of suggested “therapy” for Osama Bin Laden, drawing him to the Upper West Side for a little couch time couldn’t have been a less successful response to 9/11 than the Bush plan of diverting our war on terror resources to invade a country that didn’t attack us.