Out-Guessing Rove

I just read an article suggesting that the reason Rove was attacking Hillary was because he was actually afraid of Obama and wanted Dems to rally around Hillary instead. And I don't really put too much to this kind of thing. Once you get into this triple-secret reverse psychology, you just end up tripping over your own feet and mess yourself up. And I think that's really the only thing Rove's trying to do; besides pumping up his overhyped "genius" reputation.

So I figured this was just more of Rove's typical mindfuck stuff that he puts out there to make everyone think he's a genius. If he attacked Kerry more than Edwards before the 2004 Democratic primaries, as the article suggests, then it was because they saw Kerry as the one requiring more softening. Or perhaps it would make him more likely to win because he was getting more media attention. But I'm not sure I noticed any specific rallying around Kerry due to Rove backlash and could easily see how this kind of thing could backfire. Afterall, if you spend all your time attacking the weaker candidate and it works and the other guy wins, then you've just wasted your time and are futher back than if you had attacked the person you were really worried about. So I really didn't think there was anything to this.

That was until I read this part of the article:
Asked whether he was attacking Clinton because the GOP feared Obama, Rove replied: "I read that in the LA Times this morning. Those, those guys out in LA have got to get clued in. I mean, come on."

Huh? What the hell kind of answer is that? If I didn't know any better, I'd say this guy is the worst liar over the age of twelve. That denial was simply pathetic. I've had cats who could lie better than that. I'd almost go so far as to put this into the triple-secret reverse psychology category of him giving such a pathetic denial because he wanted people to believe something that wasn't really true, except that this would make him look like a fool and that's the one area Rove doesn't go. He might take advantage of Bush's well-known intellecual disabilities, but he still wants the Boy Genius title for himself.

I know he likes to pretend as if he's some Do-Gooder getting smeared by evil Dems, but that's all part of his game. It's fun for the villain to smear the goodguy by pretending to be wrongly smeared by the goodguy; that was the entire premise of the Dudley Do-Right movie. But in no case is he playing this so that he looks like he's a lousy liar. For him to go there would be to give up the whole game.

So I can only guess that it really is true, and that he somehow wasn't expecting to be asked about it. Or something, I don't know. I'm sure he really does like to engage in weirdo reverse-psychology stuff, as it helps both his ego and reputation. When in reality he only wins because he fights dirty and hits hard. And even then, he really hasn't been that successful and his reverse-psychology bullshit often hurts him more than it helps.

Planting smears that his opponent is a lesbian or has a mulatto kid; that's Rove's magic. But this reverse-psychology stuff only works if his opponent allows it to work and tries to out-think him. He'll get you second-guessing yourself and then smear you for being indecisive. But he really doesn't mean this stuff at all. It's just part of the smoke & mirrors he uses to hide the fact that he's only a cheap thug and that's all he'll ever be. And the greatest trick he ever pulled was convincing anyone that he was anything else.