Are You Finished?

As I read Karl Rove's words, all I can think of is that he must have been bullied unmercifully as a kid for being a short, chubby, pasty-faced dork.

In his WSJ op-ed hit piece, Rove assesses the Democratic landscape after the PA primary, in
Is Obama Ready for Prime Time?. He claims Obama was "pummeled" by Clinton, who managed to "cobble" a victory despite her own flaws. According to his world view:

The Democratic Party has two weakened candidates. Mrs. Clinton started as a deeply flawed candidate: the palpable and unpleasant sense of entitlement, the absence of a clear and optimistic message, the grating personality impatient to be done with the little people and overly eager for a return to power, real power, the phoniness and the exaggerations. These problems have not diminished over the long months of the contest. They have grown. She started out with the highest negatives of any major candidate in an open race for the presidency and things have only gotten worse.

And what of the reborn Adlai Stevenson? Mr. Obama is befuddled and angry about the national reaction to what are clearly accepted, even commonplace truths in San Francisco and Hyde Park. How could anyone take offense at the observation that people in small-town and rural American are "bitter" and therefore "cling" to their guns and their faith, as well as their xenophobia? Why would anyone raise questions about a public figure who, for only 20 years, attended a church and developed a close personal relationship with its preacher who says AIDS was created by our government as a genocidal tool to be used against people of color, who declared America's chickens came home to roost on 9/11, and wants God to damn America? Mr. Obama has a weakness among blue-collar working class voters for a reason.

After reading Rove's ravings, you would think that the Democrats may as well just pack it in now, since they've already lost the election. Of course, for me, his rants are the biggest favorable endorsement one can get.

Yet, Rove might have missed mentioning a few items of importance in making his predictions of doom. Gee, maybe he ignored the huge increases in voter registration rolls (for the Democrats) and well as record voter turnout. And as much as it can be problematic for the Democrats, the truth of the matter is that the intra-party fighting is the result of the fact that democrats are so enthused for their candidate that they are sniping at each other.

On the other hand, the Republican slate was so lame that Double Talk McCain won by default and the Republicans have to take a double dose of their Stepford juice before they could support him. In fact, I'm willing to bet that Rick Santorum had to take his dose via IV before he was able to pen his latest endorsement of McCain, Why conservatives should support McCain. Of course, he's a Republican, so his earlier screeds against McCain are no longer operative. See, e.g., Even Santorum can’t stay away.

I think that we've thankfully reached the point where the ramblings of Rove are just that.