Every candidate in both major parties knows it and is trying

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The Divider Behind the Uniter

As Karl Rove prepares to depart the White House after almost 15 years at the side of George W. Bush, he leaves behind an important question: Can anyone among the 2008 political strategists devise a game plan for canada goose outlet woodbury winning tough campaigns that also contributes to successful governing? Rove’s canada goose outlet toronto factory probable legacy has been well analyzed since word of his departure was published in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. It is obviously mixed.

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Canada Goose online He built the strategy for winning a 2000 campaign in which, as the Bush team used to joke, required a campaign message of: “Things are good. Time for a change.” He followed up that campaign with a 2004 reelection strategy built on the opposite theme: “Things are lousy. Stay the course.” Canada Goose online

canadian goose jacket In between those presidential campaigns, he injected the politics of terrorism into the 2002 midterm elections, which helped the Republican Party defy history and record gains in the House and Senate. But canada goose outlet las vegas the strategy came at a significant cost of poisoning relationships canada goose outlet new york city between the canada goose outlet location parties that has deepened because of the war canada goose outlet phone number in Iraq and that has become part of Rove’s legacy. canadian goose jacket

canada goose Rove will exit the White House remembered by his friends as one of the most canada goose outlet los angeles effective political strategists of the past two decades, but branded by opponents with a reputation as the architect of the kind of divisive, partisan politics that have made Bush the most canada goose parka outlet uk polarizing president in history. canada goose

Democrats long have argued that it was canada goose outlet store near me Bush at Rove’s encouragement who squandered the national unity after terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. canada goose outlet uk They point to Rove’s speech to the Republican National Committee early 2002 canada goose outlet in toronto in which he pointed to the war on terror as a political asset and a political weapon to be used in the upcoming campaign.

buy canada goose jacket Rove would argue that the relations between the parties already were poisoned, that Democrats long before had decided they would not or could not work with the president. In a 50 50 nation and a country divided into red and blue states, according to this argument, the battle lines were drawn long before any of the nasty canada goose outlet authentic ads started airing in that campaign. buy canada goose jacket

canada goose black friday sale Much has been written overnight about the tactical skills Rove employed in canada goose outlet online uk Bush’s campaigns as well as his failure to achieve canada goose victoria parka outlet on his watch the creation of a durable Republican majority. Rove never has believed in big boom theory of realigning elections and saw as his goal steady expansion by the Republicans over a series of campaigns. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose clearance Whether 2006 marked an interruption in what has been a period of conservative expansion or the beginning of a pendulum swing back toward the left is part of what Campaign 2008 will reveal. At a minimum, 2006 marked a huge setback for the GOP, the president and Rove. canada goose clearance

cheap Canada Goose But election victories mean little without a successful governing strategy. Even after their 2004 reelection victory, Bush and Rove were unsuccessful in converting their success into popular support for a domestic agenda or the administration’s policies in Iraq. cheap Canada Goose

canada goose coats on sale That is the biggest challenge facing all the candidates vying to succeed Bush canada goose outlet in uk as well as the strategists who hope one day to be remembered as the most successful operatives of their generation. canada goose coats on sale

Few things are more evident along the campaign trail than public disgust with politics in Washington. Every candidate in both major parties knows it and is trying to position him or herself as the person who can usher in a different style of governing.

Canada Goose Parka All pay canada goose outlet locations in toronto lip service to working together and in almost the next breath utter words canada goose outlet niagara falls designed to drive a wedge canada goose outlet uk fake into the electorate on every issue of importance whether canada goose outlet houston it canada goose shop uk is Republicans branding Democratic proposals on health care as socialized medicine or Democrats offering their loyalists on the left red meat rhetoric about the president and his chief political strategist. Canada Goose Parka

Canada Goose Outlet Republican and Democratic candidates talk about national reconciliation but then run their primary campaigns from parallel universes, as if they live in different nations: Republicans speaking to Red America and Democrats speaking to Blue America. The strategists offer private reassurances that canada goose outlet near me things will change once the nominations are secured and their candidates can focus on the center of the electorate and a more unifying message. Perhaps. Canada Goose Outlet

Whatever they all think about Karl Rove and the legacy he leaves behind, the question they have before them is: what next? At this point they judge success as winning winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and the states that follow, then winning what could be another tough and negative general election.

canada goose clearance sale Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent between now and November 2008 on negative ads and nasty messages. Will the winner emerge with a strategy and the political canada goose uk support to solve the conundrum of Iraq or fix a health care system that has left 45 million Americans without insurance or any of the other problems on the horizon? Or will they have run a campaign that puts winning first and governing last? canada goose clearance sale

Of course, Rove didn’t invent hardball politics. He simply pushed the envelope further than his Republican predecessors might have thought possible. And most importantly, Rove reveled in his association with what an earlier generation might have deemed beyond the pale.

canada goose deals Rove relished his role as a cherubic bad boy. With each of his successes, he grew giddier. Much like a ten year old frying ants with a magnifying glass, Rove seemed to delight in the gruesome nature of his opponents’ particular destruction, without either the wit or contrition of the late, archetypal dirty trickster, Lee Atwater. canada goose deals

To us, Rove was a foil. He was “bad cop” to George W. Bush’s “good cop.” By goading the press into positioning Rove as a smirking version of “The Dark Lord,” Rove successfully deflected attribution of his tactics to his clients who where, after all, the ultimate “deciders” in each of Rove’s political campaigns. Rove, his minions, and his imitators may have run roughshod over our electoral system. Rove may have tainted his profession, that of the paid political consultant, for generations to come. But, it was those who paid for his services who ought to be held accountable. For it is they who have reaped this acrid crop.

In the end, history may reduce Mr. Rove’s importance to an asterisk. He was not canada goose outlet the architect of the Republican’s Southern Strategy that not only elected Richard canada goose outlet washington dc Nixon, but forged a complete, and some may deem, permanent, political realignment of the South. Rove did not “strategerize” landslide victories for George W. Bush in 1988 under far harsher political climates. No, Rove’s lasting mark will likely be the level of toxicity that currently corrodes the political profession and American politics as a global brand. And, unlike the toxicity of his predecessors, we are deeply concerned that this Rovian toxicity is radioactive, with a half life destined to last for countless generations.

canada goose store Can our political culture “re brand” itself? Yes. But, we must be vigilant in our expectations. We must demand true accountability from our leaders, while carefully filtering out the nonsensical jabs foisted upon us those who seek political advantage through the politics of personal destruction and not the critical engagement of political ideals. Is this overly altruistic? Absolutely. But, our nation was founded by pragmatic visionaries, not cynics. Our Founders understood history and human and political nature with tremendous depth which is precisely the reason that our power is divided into three distinct branches and further subdivided by the people who hold office within those branches. canada goose store

As buy canada goose uk James Madison writes in The Federalist, Number 51:

But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but canada goose outlet in new york the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to canada goose jacket outlet uk control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the canada goose jacket outlet store people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Perhaps, “If angels were to govern men,” they might ensure that those who help to elect them rise to a similar standard of greatness. Honorable leadership is possible. But, first we must be willing to honor the process.

Canada Goose sale We can only pray that Mr. Rove, and his cynical, kindred spirits across the globe, will simply huff, take their marbles, and go home when they realize that the market for their brand of politics has shriveled in the face of true political debate. Canada Goose sale

Canada Goose Jackets At http://www.canadagoosejacketoutlett.com the very least, a little Lee Atwater style repentance from Rove and his ilk canada goose outlet usa might take us one step closer to a more idyllic political landscape. Just a hope. Canada Goose Jackets

It would be more accurate to describe Karl Marx Rove as the career criminal that he is. Over the last decade, in addition to his admission before the Grand Jury of his crime of Treason in outing an active CIA operative and her worldwide network of intelligence assets which probably led to at least 10 CIA assets dying, he has admitted to theft, illegal phone usage, and many other crimes.

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