The Right Path for O'Donnell
Andrew Klavan ·
Sep 16, 2010 at 3:44pm
Like a lot of folks, I was really put off by Karl Rove's dopey reaction to Christine O'Donnell's victory in Delaware on the Hannity Show.
I spent my few free minutes this morning questioning some insiders about it, basically asking, "How could Karl lay into O'Donnell and eulogize the liberal Castle like that?" One very sharp observer told me Rove was upset because, as bad as the establishment GOP is, O'Donnell is "embarrassing and delusional." My feeling is that if O'Donnell is embarrassing and delusional, she shouldn't be a senator--she should be speaker of the house, in order to insure a smooth transition.
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May '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Hey you might be onto something Andrew. "Embarrassing and delusional" ought to give her a lot of appeal to Democrats, who have come to expect such qualities in a leader.
Jun '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Klavan, if I had time I would do the "morph" effect from Pelosi to O'Donnell to highlight your point (any graphic artists out there?). I think Rove is finding himself less and less relevant and is striking back. He doesn't understand that the Tea Party is just in its infancy. He reminds me of Bruno Kirby in This Is Spinal Tap, as the limo driver talking about rock and roll saying "I don't want to say this - but this is a Fad."
Rove wants to exert his power to shape the conservative narrative, and I think he was just a deer caught in the headlights, whining that his side didn't win. Don't worry, at some point, he will realize that the Tea Party is the real conservative movement, then position himself at the head of it, with aplomb. He is the Rover after all...
May '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.
Sep '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
I agree Andrew. I also think that T. Coddington van Vorhees VII over at iowahawk has the last best word.
Jun '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
This is all I'll say about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s55QoIZScP4
Jul '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Agreed.
I've always thought Rove was highly over-rated. If you look at his track record, it's very mixed - perhaps 50/50 won/lost, at best. Even then, you have to assume that some of "his" candidates who won probably would have won, anyway.
And with Rove at the helm, in a center/right country, George Bush barely squeaked by in two successive presidential elections. Given Clinton fatigue and Al Gore's manifest unattractiveness, Bush should have won the 2000 election handily.
Now, as the ultimate insider, he finds himself in an environment where "insider" is a dirty word.
Jun '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Kenneth
.....George Bush barely squeaked by in two successive presidential elections. Given Clinton fatigue and Al Gore's manifest unattractiveness, Bush should have won the 2000 election handily....
Obama did very well because his teleprompter was a political genius. Him, not so much. The problem is, not every candidate follows the teleprompter's advice quite as well as Obama did. Sometimes the candidates go off script.
Jul '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
and more thinking today: and I predict that more TP entries in the US election races will seem strange and weird when compared to your run of the mill politician. But isn't that the point of the TP?
I can't help but think that Andrew Jackson couldn't have been elected dog catcher (well, maybe dog catcher, but nothing else); and Tom Paine was a very difficult person to have at the dinner table.
I see you point about Joe Miller, but then Alaska is an outlier: Palin had already done a number on the local machine by 2008.
The actual point is: what is the person's ideas, and how opinionated are they anyway? Because it will be really difficult to change what needs to be changed. Believe me.
Sep '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
"There were conservatives in both sides of this race" Karl Rove
It seems that Rove defines conservatives far more broadly than most. I certainly dont consider Mike Castle to be conservative. Perhaps Rove is guilty of conflating the word "conservative" with the party affiliation, Republican.
This can happen when you are fighting in the trenches. In this regard, he is not a General, but a footsoldier perhaps a Sargent or Lieutenant. But the people in a Democracy are the Generals. They call the shots.
My question is really does Rove know what he is doing and actively defending the GOP status quo, or is he just following his political rubric.
By the way, is this the same guy who advised Bush to respond to the most vicious inpugnments of his motivations as, "just politics"?
Rush astutely, and quite diplomatically, made the operative distinction about Mike Murphy, and, by proxy, Karl Rove. To paraphrase, they are numbercruncers working to convert the middle and have canceled out and ignore the entrenched sides as irrelevant in their day to day work. They then carry this attitude into their punditry.
May '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
"Embarrassing and delusional"?
What's embarrassing and delusional is the establishment's idea that they're controlling the narrative here.
I like what Jim Geraghty said about her this afternoon. A girl who will go onto MTV and defend the claim that masturbation is immoral is a girl who is fearless. She'll have no problem telling Washington insiders where they can get off.
Edited on Sep 16, 2010 at 6:10pmSep '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
I hear the democrat nominee in Delaware is a self described marxist. How is it that the GOP has the more unelectable candidate? Why can't Rove spend his Fox News airtime reading from a list of that guys flaws instead??
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Drew Klavan, I am laughing myself silly. I'm going to steal that line and claim it as my own, and tell everyone that you stole it from me.
Jun '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
I hope what Rove meant was, there were conservatives on both sides of this political chess game. The ones on Castle's side were the ones playing it safe, settling for half a loaf. The ones on the other side were going for broke.
Edited on Sep 16, 2010 at 5:40pmSep '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
"Embarrassing"--there's a telling word. There is a mini culture war (a culture skirmish?) taking place within the conservative-GOP camp.
May '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
It IS a great line. All kudos to Klavan.
But can the rest of us get real here please? Nancy Pelosi is really and truly embarrassing and delusional. So is Barak Obama, who thought the planet would begin to heal when he was elected president. So is Harry Reid, who thought it would be a good idea to mention yesterday that Chris Coons is his "pet."
But what is our side doing calling Christine O'Donnell embarrassing and delusional? What are the grounds? Was she delusional for thinking she might beat Mike Castle? Was she delusional for thinking people from his camp were following her? (Anyone here find that an unbelievable claim?) Is she delusional to think she might be able to persuade a majority of Delawarians that the Obama-rubberstamp-Harry-Reid-pet-raCoon(s) might not be the best representative for their state in Washington?
Why are we playing into their hands?
Edited on Sep 16, 2010 at 5:49pmJul '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
More kudos for Klavan... best political line during this whole mess!
May '10
Re: The Right Path for O'Donnell
Karl probably didn't mean to, but he sure got all this stuff about O'Donnell out in the open and stole the impact away from the Dems using them.