Goodbye to Karl Rove! (We Hope!)

[sgsguru]

The Republican Super-PACs spent a jaw-dropping amount of money on this campaign, to amazingly little effect. Karl Rove, in particular, is going to have a lot of uncomfortable explaining to do*. I hope the reason he failed so spectacularly is that his style of campaigning isn't working any more.

Rove's campaigns are about as "content free" as it's possible to get — remember that his chief beneficiary was George W. Bush, about as close to a completely "empty suit" as you can get. His chief gimmick is to accuse the opponent of the candidates's failings — if your candidate has a drinking problem, accuse the opponent of being an alcoholic, no matter how far-fetched, and do it first. That way, the opponent's response looks like "you're another!" sour grapes.

The campaigns are also relentlessly negative — if you're selling an empty suit, you really don't have anything positive to say.

The icing on the turd, of course, is that he lies** constantly. He is fully aware that his lies will end up has headlines and that any "corrections" will be at the bottom of page 3 and published after people have already made up their minds.

In general, the Rove strategy is to win elections, by whatever means necessary.  Governing after the election?  Doesn't care.  The opinion of non-voters (especially foreigners)?  Doesn't care.  The chief result of this, of course, is to make the voters cynical, destroy trust, and in general, pollute the discourse.

Not what we need, to put it mildly.

* The classic advice at this point is "make a run for the border".  In this case, that won't work very well ...

** Not really lies, but bullshit. (See "On Bullshit", by Harry Frankfurt). In his definition, bullshit is statements made to have an immediate effect with no regard to their truth or falsity.