Word: rove
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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George W. Bush doesn't like to travel, and, by all accounts, he doesn't particularly like giving campaign speeches. But he did both until his throat was raw and his nerves frayed in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's elections. He did it because Karl Rove told him it was a good idea. And Tuesday night, voters across the country told the President that Rove was right...
...Rove, the President's most trusted political strategist and arguably one of the shrewdest man in Washington, won't publicly acknowledge the outcome of the midterms as any kind of personal affirmation. He'll attribute the Republican gains in the House and Senate to the intelligence of the voters or the general mood of the country. Or, more likely, he'll point to the President's appeal - Rove has no time for basking in past successes. This self-described "very competitive guy" is already moving on to the next big thing (which in this case may be the debate over...
...months before the midterm elections, the White House worried about the outcome of certain key races, calculating the chances that Republicans would maintain control of the House of Representatives (pretty good) and take back the Senate (not so good.) Rove, who has been called a "control freak" by more than one colleague, decided the White House would do very little good standing around worrying about the close races, but could do a great deal of good by actually getting involved - even if it meant tying the President's reputation to the races he was supporting...
...That kind of success is pretty much par for the course for Rove since he joined the Bush campaign in 2000. Rove is considered by both Democrats and Republicans to have one of the country's sharpest and most instinctive political minds. He has made plenty of enemies along his road to success; some say his personality, which is jovial at times, can turn nasty when he (or his candidate) is in trouble. Others say he'll do just about anything...
...president can certainly claim a little favorable wind behind his plan to privatize Social Security. Candidates who ran on that plan, such as Elizabeth Dole and Lindsay Graham, did well, vindicating Karl Rove and other conservatives in the party have been fighting an internal party battle over whether GOP candidates should run on the issue. Many conservatives blame Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Davis for watering down Bush's ideas, telling his candidates that running on Social Security private accounts was too risky. Whether or not Davis was right, it will be harder for him or other nervous Republicans...