"The profile of corruption in the exit polls was bigger than I’d expected," Rove tells TIME. "Abramoff, lobbying, Foley and Haggard [the disgraced evangelical leader] added to the general distaste that people have for all things Washington, and it just reached critical mass."
…And he does not believe his data let him down. "My job is not to be a prognosticator," he said. "My job is not to go out there and wring my hands and say, ‘We’re going to lose.’ I’m looking at the data and seeing if I can figure out, Where can we be? I told the President, ‘I don’t know where this is going to end up. But I see our way clear to Republican control.’ "…Despite this week’s repudiation of the GOP, Rove said he believes the party can still achieve a long-term majority. "I see this as much more of a transient, passing thing," he said. "The Republican Party remains at its core a small-government, low-tax, limit-spending, traditional-values, strong-defense party. I see the power of the ideas, even in a tough year." He added that he has "fundamental confidence in the power of the underlying agenda of this President," and cited fighting the war on terror, entitlement reform, energy, tax cuts, immigration reform, No Child Left Behind reauthorization, democracy agenda in the Middle East, reducing trade barriers, spending restraint and legal reform.
I want to make a prediction myself. Karl Rove is consistent. He always lists the traditional Conservative values when he talks about this Administration and includes the Neoconservative agendae interspersed as if they are the same things – which they arent.
I predict that the Neoconservative underpinnings of the Bush Administration will unravel quickly, and we’ll see a resurgence of something like Goldwater Conservativism and a collapse of Neoconservativism and Reaganism, particularly in the area of foreign policy. While I’m in love with none of these myself, I think traditional Conservatives and Republicans feel [and should feel] tricked by Bush and Cheney, and I predict we’ll see that disillusionment reflected in the near term. Bush is in for it from both the Democrats and the Republicans [and the Christian Right] [and the Classic Conservatives] [and the Neoconservatives].
I predict that the Neoconservative underpinnings of the Bush Administration will unravel quickly, and we’ll see a resurgence of something like Goldwater Conservativism and a collapse of Neoconservativism and Reaganism, particularly in the area of foreign policy. While I’m in love with none of these myself, I think traditional Conservatives and Republicans feel [and should feel] tricked by Bush and Cheney, and I predict we’ll see that disillusionment reflected in the near term. Bush is in for it from both the Democrats and the Republicans [and the Christian Right] [and the Classic Conservatives] [and the Neoconservatives].There, I said it and I’m glad – a prediction. What Karl Rove hasn’t factored into his prediction is that an increasing number of us of all political persuasions realize that the Administration is both incompetent and crooked, and that he [Rove] is part of both of those problems…
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