Word: rove
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...reanimate his most powerful charge: that Kerry didn't know his own mind. The Bush campaign had been pushing the story line since the Democratic primaries, but it was given neon prominence when Kerry's own remarks ratified the Bush message. In March, Kerry uttered what Bush adviser Karl Rove had called the most deadly phrase in politics: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," said Kerry about his vote against supplemental funding for the war. The trap looked foolproof: If Kerry defended his vote, that would seem to be at odds with...
...next morning even Bush was angry--with himself and his staff. "You're losing the spin war," he told his aides. Now he wanted the debate preparation streamlined. Too many people had pelted him with too much advice for him to keep it all straight, he said. So Rove told aides to leave the President alone. "Don't take that to him now," Rove was heard to say, "he's got campaigning...
...days the question lingered, Why had Bush bombed? The President had prepared carefully, listening to audiotapes of Kerry's most pointed attacks on the Administration. Everyone--Rove, Hughes, even Laura Bush--had a pet theory. Was Bush tired from visiting hurricane victims? Had he been so blinded by Kerry's claims that he'd forgotten the warnings that his facial reactions as Kerry spoke would be seen by tens of millions? "I still don't know where that person went who showed up to those last practice sessions," said an aide, looking back. The best guess was also the simplest...
...overtaken by events. May, June and July had been filled with spikes of violence in Iraq and new disclosures about abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. "We'd try [to change the subject], but even if the President said Iraq once, that's all people would talk about," recalled Rove. Though Kerry had seen no real bump in the polls, voters were viewing him as a more plausible Commander in Chief than they had before, and they were listening more closely to him than before the convention. "We couldn't believe it," says a top campaign official. "We were on defense...
...some questions that a Commander in Chief needs to answer with a clear yes or no. My opponent hasn't answered the question of whether, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq." The next day at the Bush team's weekly session held in Rove's dining room, advisers planned to put the question in each of Bush's speeches. Some privately feared that Kerry might not take the bait. The Democrat was looking stronger. His vice-presidential selection and convention had been managed smoothly. "We weren't sure he would do it," says Bush...