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Karl Rove provided state Republican officials Wednesday with his strategy for winning the 2008 presidential election, suggesting the party hammer the top Democrats on taxes, immigration, national security and a lack of experience.
Speaking to a group of state GOP executive directors from around the country at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) winter meeting, Rove said Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) are beatable.
The former adviser to the president made no mention of former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who is trailing both Clinton and Obama in most polls.
On Clinton, Rove said the senator talks about fiscal responsibility but has introduced “$800 billion in new spending and the campaign is less than half over.”
Rove said that Clinton wants to repeal all of Bush’s tax cuts, and that she can be targeted for opposing “troop funding” by highlighting her votes against supplemental spending bills to pay for the Iraq war.
Specifically, Rove hit Clinton for an awkward moment in her campaign last year, when she had trouble answering a question about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants at the Democratic debate in Philadelphia.
“I thought that was an incredible moment,” Rove said. “In the course of 15 minutes, I counted her giving about four different answers.”
DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said, “Is this the same Karl Rove that came to Washington with dreams of building a permanent Republican majority? Americans want to get out of Iraq, they want healthcare, and they want a president to get the economy back on track. The last thing they want is a third Bush term.”
Rove also questioned why Sen. Clinton and her husband, President Bill Clinton, have declined to release records from their time in the White House, a familiar attack already employed by the RNC.
Rove said that “raises legitimate questions about what she’s hiding.”
The former White House adviser also noted that likeability is an issue the party can exploit against Clinton, pointing to her victory in Michigan. Though she received more than 55 percent of the vote, Edwards and Obama did not appear on the ballot and nearly 40 percent of Democrats voted “uncommitted” on Tuesday.
“Now think about that, she’s running against nobody, and nobody got 40 percent of the vote,” Rove said.
Rove outlined a different strategy regarding Obama that would focus on his limited experience.
“He got elected three years ago, and he [has] spent almost the entire time running for president,” Rove said.
Rove said Obama often voted “present” instead of “yes” or “no” during his time in the Illinois Senate.
And as Obama’s critics were prepared to do during his Senate race in 2004, Rove said the party could go after Obama for voting “present” and “no” on state legislation that would have stopped a process whereby an infant is left to die after being born alive during a botched abortion procedure.
Rove said that nonpartisan ratings show Obama is more liberal than Clinton, which he said is “pretty hard to do.”
Time and again, however, Rove returned to the trump card he used in the 2002 and 2004 elections, saying neither Obama nor Clinton is prepared to protect the country from terrorists.
Rove served notice that Obama and Clinton would be targeted for how they vote on any Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation that comes before the Senate this year.
“Do they or do they not want our intelligence officials to be listening in on terrorists’ conversations in the Middle East who may … be plotting to hurt America?” Rove said.
Rove told the state officials that it would be their responsibility to find “creative and sustaining ways” to “talk about these contrasts.”
Rove also offered advice to whoever ultimately wins the GOP nomination.
He said the candidate had to first “create a sustaining narrative about [himself].” Then he said the candidate should “immediately engage” on the “kitchen table issues,” like healthcare, education, jobs and the economy.
Third, Rove said the GOP nominee has to show that he is serious about campaigning “aggressively in places where Republicans don’t usually campaign.” Rove said that includes among black, Latino, Asian and union voters.
“We’re going for everybody,” Rove said.
And lastly, Rove said the Republican candidate must show the electorate “that they understand the surge is working.” Rove said the candidate should get firmly behind the war effort, painting the Democratic nominee as “defeatist.” |
