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By Moe Lane Posted in 2008 | Hillary Clinton | Karl Rove | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

And here I bet that you thought this primary race was scraping the bottom of the surreality barrel. Folks, we're just getting started. The primaries are almost over - Clinton by lots in Kentucky, by the way; Obama by 10 in Oregon - and, contra a lot of hopeful sorts, the Democrats' selection process looks more like it'll run out of gas before it'll run down. They weren't prepared for somebody to make a fight for it all the way down the line, and does it ever show!

Oh, yes, she's making a fight for it:

Breaking News: Hillary Clinton now thinks Karl Rove's a political genius

Until very recently -- like suddenly this afternoon -- Karl Rove was to most Democrats the Great Satan, the political mastermind of two outrageously stunning Republican presidential victories by a Texas goofball governor and, before that, the unfortunate upset ousting of a popular Democratic governor named Ann Richards, as well as the overall rejuvenation of the Lone Star state GOP in statewide offices.

In fact, there are few things politically evil that Rove has not been blamed for by Democrats, even nine months after he exited the White House to write a book, consult and opine in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and as an analyst for Fox News.

(interrupting)

For a given value of "politically evil," of course. But this Andrew Malcolm fellow is otherwise refreshingly free of irrational, impotent hatred towards everyone to the right of Joe Lieberman, so we'll forgive it just this one time. Anyway, after noting the way that Clinton called Obama "Rovian*," Malcolm continues:

How quickly things change in this season's presidential politics.

Today, Clinton began citing Rove as the ultimate expert on who was the strongest Democratic candidate in the Nov. 4 general. And we've got the exclusive maps below to prove it, all four confidential pages.

No, really!

Read on.

The aforementioned maps may be perused here: they do indeed demonstrate that Clinton/McCain favors the Democrats, while McCain/Obama favors the GOP. To summarize both maps, very quickly: in McCain/Obama (238/221) there are eight toss-up states (between -3% - +3% for McCain); if he wins Ohio and Virginia (both currently +3%) and keeps all the other states above 4% then the election's over, McCain wins. In Clinton/McCain (259/206) there are six toss-up states, and if Clinton wins Missouri (-2% McCain) and Minnesota (-3%) she wins (and if she loses Missouri, Michigan is tied, so she can win by getting that one**). These are all based on current polls, of course; there's been a good deal of movement on McCain/Obama towards the latter in the last week, and about the same one-sided movement towards the former in Clinton/McCain. So nobody assume that these numbers are set in stone.

Nonetheless, they are there - and Senator Clinton has swiftly - and certain of her fellow Democrats would no doubt say, shamelessly*** - seized upon them as part of her campaign. Ironic, in its way, but also fairly smart of her. A lot of Democrats have invested considerable emotional energy into hating Karl Rove, and they've taken the time to construct this amazingly detailed (and quite ludicrous) group hallucination where he was and is the Ultimate Political Puppet Ascended Secret Master of the VRWC. Those people may hate Clinton for this rank apostasy, but they'll still worry.

Because, you know, it's Karl Rove.

And, remember: while I know that Karl Rove is just this guy with a good memory, access to lots of good data, and a talent for putting together a working political strategy on the tactical level; and you know that; and, heck, many if not most of our Democratic lurkers know that - we're all political junkies. Our perceptions are not the public's perceptions, which have been flavored by a lot of professional politicians' active connivance in turning Karl Rove into Mephistopheles Machiavelli. And they're going to wonder what this all means. When Malcom wrote:

O.K., now let's see what this is really about. So Rove, the Republican Svengali of modern American politics, is really saying that Clinton is stronger because he wants Democrats to pick her because he secretly knows that she really isn't stronger and that will backfire and actually help the GOP's McCain.

Or, no, wait. Maybe Rove is really saying Clinton is stronger now because he knows Democrats won't believe him so then they'll do the opposite and choose Obama, which is really what Rove wants because he knows McCain is stronger against the freshman senator.

...he finished up by noting that Rove could have simply been telling the truth, as he saw it. I somehow suspect that quite a few of his compatriots are going to wonderfully reject that as far too easy an answer...

Moe Lane

*And come to think of it, the way that Obama (or more accurately, his handlers) were able to manipulate the system to the point where the Democrats seem almost ready to give the nomination to the guy who won Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah over the woman who won California, Ohio, and Massachusetts was almost Rovian. I say "almost" because Karl would have given some thought about how his guy could win the primary without terminally aggravating roughly 15% and rising of his Party's base.

Heck, I would have.

**By the way: in Rove's current McCain/Obama matchup Michigan goes to McCain by 1%. Heck of a job that you're doing at the DNC, Howard. Heck of a job.

***If you're someone who would call this shameless, could you do us a favor and say so, loudly, in a Democratic forum? Anywhere Clinton supporters hang out will do. Thanks in advance!