Rove Says Iraq Won’t Dominate 2008
EmailABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: Top Bush adviser Karl Rove said Sunday that he thinks the Iraq war will not be the dominant issue in next year’s presidential campaign because of his assumption about "where it is—where it is likely to be" come springtime of 2008.
"I think Iraq may or may not be the big issue," said Rove. "It depends on where Iraq is by March, or April, or May of next year. I think it’s likely not to be the dominant issue because I think, because of my assumptions about where it is – where it is likely to be."
Rove’s Iraq comments, coming at a time when support for President Bush’s Iraq strategy is unraveling among Senate Republicans, are fueling speculation among critics of the Bush administration that the troop drawdown is being planned more for political reasons than because of an improving situation on the ground in Iraq.
Beyond his own assumption about where U.S. troop levels are likely to be, Rove thinks Iraq will lose its dominant status because Democrats will "want the issue to be toned down" so as not to box in a potential Democratic president.
"So I think this is sort of like Korea in 1952 and 53," said Rove of the Democrats seeking the White House, "where Eisenhower made a comment which led people to believe that he was for change: ‘I’ll go to Korea,’ but in essence, kept in place the policies of Truman after the election."
Rove believes Democrats will want the Iraq issue "toned down" in order to avoid a situation in which a winning Democratic presidential candidate faces either a precipitous withdrawal or an extended engagement which causes a large portion of the Democratic Party to turn on the party’s newly elected president.
"I think it also may be less of an issue because if you are a Democrat," said Rove, "you do not want to be in a place where on Jan. 21st, 2009, if a Democrats gets elected president, the Democratic president faces the likelihood — there will be US troops in Iraq — and so you want the issue to be toned down because you don’t want to be in a place where on Jan. 21, if you are a Democrat, and you get elected, you face one of two options: you bring them home precipitously and everybody, virtually everybody, agrees that the country descends into chaos, and that’s on your watch, or that you keep them there in a reasonable configuration — redeployed — in which case a large part of your party is angry with you."
Iraq will also lose its salience as an issue, according to Rove, because Republican presidential candidates will discuss national security in a "broader context than just Iraq."
Rove’s claim that the eventual Democratic presidential nominee would want the Iraq issue "toned down" in 2008 was mocked Monday by the president of a liberal group working to end the war.
"Karl Rove is smoking something if he thinks Democrats are going to abandon a position supported by 70 percent of Americans," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change. "It just shows how much Karl Rove has lost his political touch . . . Americans don’t believe this war was worth it and they want our troops out of harm’s way."
Rove portrayed President Bush’s troop buildup, which began earlier this year, as making a troop drawdown possible.
"The idea is that the surge doesn’t last indefinitely," said Rove. "The object of the surge is to clear and to allow the Iraqis to have time to properly hold and to do enough damage to the infrastructure of the enemy that it is difficult for the enemy to come back."
Rove made his comments while speaking at an annual "ideas festival" sponsored by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic magazine in Aspen, Colo.
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Rove will go down in history as the single most important person who got the worst President of the United States elected and who did the most damage to America and its political system. Rove is our own national terrorist. He orchestrated using fear with all those terrorist alerts to make people vote for incompetents in a country that is by its own nature normally comprised of an optimistic and brave people. Rove needed people to vote conservative, so he gave us lots of terror alerts before the last election. Fortunately, history is not kind to such fear mongers, look at Sen. Joe McCarthy and his communism scare tactics. Rove, Bush II, Cheney and Dumbsfield will all share a big piece of the same history with Sen. Joe. Rove better pray there is no such thing as bad Karma.
Since the election was over, when was the last time you saw a terror alert?
Posted by: Peter | July 9, 2007, 5:19 pm 5:19 pm
HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA
Since when has Rove been right?? As Clintons staffer once said, “Its the economy stupid.”
Hey Rove, “Its the WAR STUPID!!!”
Americans are going to vote all you bums and warmongers out. Then, hopefully investigations into how exactly those no-bid contracts got handed out and why we taxpayers pay $45 for a six pack of Coke thats bottled in Iraq for our troops.
I highly doubt if any politician listens to Rove this time around has an honest.. (oops) I mean, has a chance in hell of being elected.
Posted by: Patriot4Paul | July 9, 2007, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
I agree with Rove, mainly because Hillary will be the Democratic nominee and she’ll have a relatively centrist position, which likely won’t be much different from the Republican position. I’m guessing both candidates will be aligned pretty much with what Murtha started pushing months ago. That position seemed extreme back then but pretty soon most everybody is likely to see it as the best way to go.
So since there won’t be much difference on the Iraq positions of the two nominees, it won’t be a deciding issue.
What will be the deciding issues are issues that both sides take polar opposite positions on. The two main ones of these polorizing issues will be immigration (i.e., yes or no on Amnesty and enforcement) and Supreme Court Justices (i.e., nominate conservatives like Roberts or liberals like Ginsberg).
Hillary will give the country Amnesty and nonenforecement on immigration, and she will nominate several more Ruth Bader Ginsbergs to the Supreme Court. Fred will give enforcement first on immigration and no amnesty, and he’ll nominate several more John Roberts to the Court.
The election will be a very clear choice on those issues, but the two nominees will be in about the same place on Iraq.
Posted by: Jake Long | July 9, 2007, 7:26 pm 7:26 pm
The significance of Rove’s statements is not because of his insight, though I think he makes some good points, but because of his power. He can help to arrange that his own scenario will come true, by allowing troops to come home by Election Day. There won’t be peace in Iraq by then, but we can have washed our hands of the situation if it helps get someone elected. As CBS News reports , Republicans are waiting for President Bush to change his policies, and Karl Rove can make that happen.
Posted by: Michael | July 9, 2007, 9:26 pm 9:26 pm
Remember Karl… He’s the one with THE MATH the day before The Thumpin’!
There is simply no way this will ever be anything but “Bush’s War.”
Since the Libby trial, we know that Bush lied and people died. (Well, actually, we found out that Blair is Bush’s poodle, but Bush is Cheney’s puppet. So, I guess technically, Cheney lied, people died.)
The American people are done with Iraq. This is just Rove’s way of hoping to share the blame.
Rove has implied that Democrats suffered for Viet Nam because they cut off funds. The Democrats suffered for Viet Nam because their President, Lyndon Johnson, was in charge of the war policy… and I think even Lyndon Johnson would have brought Osmama Bin Laden to justice for declaring war on us, rather than spending $12 billion a month fighting a civil war in Iraq.
No, Iraq will be hanging around the GOP’s neck for a generation.
In addition, we continue to find out that GOP Presidents really can’t govern for crap.
Posted by: Jan | July 9, 2007, 9:53 pm 9:53 pm
I heard Karl Rove say on NPR before the 2006 elections that the Republicans would maintain control over Congress. The NPR interviewer remarked that the (polling) numbers didn’t seem to support that assumption, and Rove condescendingly replied that he had THE numbers. The interviewer seemed taken aback, but let it go. Maybe he is still looking at THE numbers… Poor Karl… hahaha!!!!
Posted by: kdo | July 9, 2007, 10:19 pm 10:19 pm
This time, Rove got this wrong. War will be the issue and immigration. Rove, Bush & Cheney dwell on lies and the fear tactics that they used. Americans are tired of their lies and this time, its the end of the line for all of you. Like it or not, this is it.
Posted by: marc | July 10, 2007, 12:12 am 12:12 am
He should be in jail. How long can we allow the President to shield people from testifying under oath or allow the courts to keep upholding human rights violations? They are all a bunch of low-life bullies who need to be in jail.
Posted by: Hamilton | July 10, 2007, 1:32 am 1:32 am
Sounds like Bush and Rove are getting ready to cut and run now that the war is costing them personally, politically that is. They and their ilk always seem to avoid the real fighting. By the way, wasn`t it Nixon, a Republican, that dragged his feet getting out of Viet Nam and then cut and ran leaving our friends to face the enemy? Now that Bush has screwed up Iraq, we can be sure he and Rove will blame the Iraqis and the Democrats. As Senator Olympia Snow said last night on The News Hour, all the Bush opponents on the war want to end this thing responsibly. The only ones we need to be concerned about not acting responsibly are the ones who started it and prosecuted it so ineptly.
Posted by: A Viet Nam Vet | July 10, 2007, 9:19 am 9:19 am
Karl Rove? Who listens to him, other than George Where’s the Fence Bush and the news media?
The republican party should thrown his butt out.
Is the Republican Party better today than 8 years ago? Noooooooooooooooo, thanks to him.
Posted by: al jordan | July 10, 2007, 9:30 am 9:30 am
This time, I think he IS wrong! I think the war is the only thing people are thinking about, other than their pocketbook, which they ALWAYS think about.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | July 10, 2007, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
God what an idiot this man is. Yes, Hillary will probably be our next President and I for one will vote for her. Just like I voted for Bill.
Posted by: ant | July 10, 2007, 2:41 pm 2:41 pm
Rove’s right. The war is virtually over. This issue will go away over time. We won militarily a long time ago. This is just terrorism in Iraq now. Eventually, that will die down and the enemies of the Iraqi gov’t will find another stupid cause to blow up for. I nthe long run, there is not a great chance that the terrorists can defeat the will of millions of Iraqi to live in peace and freedom. Thjsi war may have been a pain in the short run but it’ll go down well in history.
Posted by: Teddy | July 11, 2007, 10:24 am 10:24 am
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh Karl…thanks for making me laugh so hard and brightening up my day! Just when I thought you couldn’t be any dumber, you sink to a new low. I hope you’re as right about this as you were about the 2006 elections.
Posted by: Ryan | July 11, 2007, 11:42 am 11:42 am
rove wrongly presumes that the playing field will remain as it was. if the congress chooses to push the war to the front, it will dominate 2008 regardless of rove’s preference. watch for moves by congress to cut funding for everything except the troops, while bush squeals like a stuck pig and the american public applauds (including formerly republican “loyalists”). the admin’s only defense will be to crash the economy, but the dems will trump that too by blaming bush/paulson/wall street/big oil.
the republican party is going to get turned inside out like a flayed skin.
Posted by: john nihau | July 12, 2007, 10:48 pm 10:48 pm
anyone who does not think iraq will be a main topick in 2008 is a complete moron
Posted by: wm | July 13, 2007, 12:45 pm 12:45 pm