# Here's to Karl Rove **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341 "2012-11-08T06:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/41 "2012-11-08T20:13:22Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I don’t… lol… I don’t even know what library paste is but I love it. There was a young couple named Kelly Who are stuck fast, belly to belly Because in their haste They used library paste Instead of petroleum jelly. Does that help? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/42 "2012-11-08T20:13:34Z")
> [@Enkel](#): > > What was that they said… “all we need is a monkey with an opposing thumb that can sign documents” (I think it was Norquist talking about how weak Obama’s chances were and why he wasn’t worried about Romney). It was Grover Norquist at a CPAC speech: “All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. … Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.” Incidentally, news of Boehner and other Republicans offering the olive branch and saying they’ll consider a compromise with Democrats on a budget has reportedly made Norquist spittin’ mad. There were some good news articles with some very sharply worded quotes from him, but I can’t find them now. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/43 "2012-11-08T20:16:26Z")
He’s spinning back today. Here’s one example: **[Karl Rove: Obama ‘succeeded by suppressing the vote’](http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F1_0_s_7_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEkzm4_qi3zDU9v-2MSRdytPMHL6Q&cid=52778022879345&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Felection-2012%2Fwp%2F2012%2F11%2F08%2Fkarl-rove-obama-succeeded-by-suppressing-the-vote%2F&ei=TxCcUJjlL8WgiQKk9AE&sig2=3tTR7xQVa_N3_ccyTzSS0w&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&twa=f&did=4879546651038987985&sid=top-stories)** **Obama is really smart. He did what all the Republican legislators, secretaries of state, and election commisioners couldn’t do.** ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/44 "2012-11-08T20:17:21Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Say that $800 million was spent on the Republican campaign. (That’s not dead on, but it’s close enough to work with.) That’s enough to pay a $50k salary to 16,000 people for a year. The last jobs report says that 171,000 jobs were added in October. If all $800 million had been spent hiring people in that one month at a fairly modest average salary, it would have improved that one report by about 9.4%. In a month with a weaker jobs report, like April (+115,000), the effect would have been larger (~14%), but still not huge What makes you think that that money didn’t go to pay people? People had to design and produce the buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs and commercials, deliver material and telemarket. Rent had to be paid for office space. Most of that money did go to people. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/45 "2012-11-08T20:24:19Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > He’s spinning back today. Here’s one example: > **[Karl Rove: Obama ‘succeeded by suppressing the vote’](http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F1_0_s_7_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEkzm4_qi3zDU9v-2MSRdytPMHL6Q&cid=52778022879345&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Felection-2012%2Fwp%2F2012%2F11%2F08%2Fkarl-rove-obama-succeeded-by-suppressing-the-vote%2F&ei=TxCcUJjlL8WgiQKk9AE&sig2=3tTR7xQVa_N3_ccyTzSS0w&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&twa=f&did=4879546651038987985&sid=top-stories)** > > **Obama is really smart. He did what all the Republican legislators, secretaries of state, and election commisioners couldn’t do.** This doesn’t surprise me. The main republican tactic these past few years have been to do something completely immoral and terrible, then pretend like it was the democrats doing it the entire time. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/46 "2012-11-08T20:24:47Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > In a bad movie version of these events, the Karl Rove-esque character would end up somewhere in an alley with a couple of slugs in the back of his head. Played by the guy who played Dr. Zola in the Captain America movie. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/47 "2012-11-08T20:28:55Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Karl looked like a guy who knew the fix was in, and couldn’t believe that the fix didn’t actually come in. Sort of makes you wonder if that ‘experimental patch’ that was sent out to the 39 counties at the very last minute (no independent testing or validation)… didn’t quite work out the way that Karl expected. (see the Vote Flipping thread for more details) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/48 "2012-11-08T20:32:06Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > He’s spinning back today. Here’s one example: > **[Karl Rove: Obama ‘succeeded by suppressing the vote’](http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F1_0_s_7_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEkzm4_qi3zDU9v-2MSRdytPMHL6Q&cid=52778022879345&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Felection-2012%2Fwp%2F2012%2F11%2F08%2Fkarl-rove-obama-succeeded-by-suppressing-the-vote%2F&ei=TxCcUJjlL8WgiQKk9AE&sig2=3tTR7xQVa_N3_ccyTzSS0w&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&twa=f&did=4879546651038987985&sid=top-stories)** > > **Obama is really smart. He did what all the Republican legislators, secretaries of state, and election commisioners couldn’t do.** For those who don’t want to click through, he claims that Obama “suppressed the vote” by saying mean things about Romney and thereby making people not want to vote for him. Which is a truly revolutionary election strategy; I’m not sure why no one ever thought of it before. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/49 "2012-11-08T20:33:05Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > He’s spinning back today. Here’s one example: > **[Karl Rove: Obama ‘succeeded by suppressing the vote’](http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F1_0_s_7_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEkzm4_qi3zDU9v-2MSRdytPMHL6Q&cid=52778022879345&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Felection-2012%2Fwp%2F2012%2F11%2F08%2Fkarl-rove-obama-succeeded-by-suppressing-the-vote%2F&ei=TxCcUJjlL8WgiQKk9AE&sig2=3tTR7xQVa_N3_ccyTzSS0w&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&twa=f&did=4879546651038987985&sid=top-stories)** > > **Obama is really smart. He did what all the Republican legislators, secretaries of state, and election commisioners couldn’t do.** Which votes? More blacks, hispanic and young voters voted than in 2008 (per a non-FoxNews source that I can’t remember right now… probably Maddow) From the article: > [@](#): > > Rove told Fox News. “They effectively denigrated Mitt Romney’s character, business acumen, experience.” As opposed to Rove’s fine artistic creations that glorified all that is American and applauded Obama’s leadership in getting us out of the last ditch that Rove left us in? ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/50 "2012-11-08T20:37:20Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Say that $800 million was spent on the Republican campaign. I think each side spent about a billion dollars. That’s two billion dollars… with a ‘B’ billion. I commented on how the unemployment rate dropped at least in part because of the spending and someone on this board with a printing operation said they’d made more off the campaigns than in the last three years combined. I like to think of it as an arrogance tax that we the people have extracted from the 1%ers. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/51 "2012-11-08T20:48:55Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > You know, a part of me thought the same thing. When he started going on about how they were calling Ohio too early, I flashed back to 2000. > > I can’t shake a tiny suspicion - and yes I know this is foil hat stuff - that the fix _was_ in, or at least was supposed to be, but somehow they were outsmarted by the Dems. I know what you mean. I was waiting for Rove to spout out with something like: “Ohio can’t be called for Obama! I was assured that the new software in the voting machines would be flipping votes anytime now! We were ripped off by that damn company!” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/52 "2012-11-08T20:52:17Z")
Program was written in BASIC. Should have been a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/53 "2012-11-08T21:35:20Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I know what you mean. I was waiting for Rove to spout out with something like: > > “Ohio can’t be called for Obama! I was assured that the new software in the voting machines would be flipping votes anytime now! We were ripped off by that damn company!” “Inconceivable!” ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/54 "2012-11-08T22:23:47Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Incidentally, news of Boehner and other Republicans offering the olive branch and saying they’ll consider a compromise with Democrats on a budget has reportedly made Norquist spittin’ mad. There were some good news articles with some very sharply worded quotes from him, but I can’t find them now. That’s weird, because if you look at what Boehner said, that’s really not what he’s saying at all. He’s said they’ll look into compromising on increasing revenue based on growth-oriented tax cuts. They’re still sticking to “tax-cuts-increase-revenues” for now. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/55 "2012-11-08T22:27:37Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I know what you mean. I was waiting for Rove to spout out with something like: > > “Ohio can’t be called for Obama! I was assured that the new software in the voting machines would be flipping votes anytime now! We were ripped off by that damn company!” “But we never have this problem with Idaho.” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/56 "2012-11-08T22:29:57Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > That’s weird, because if you look at what Boehner said, that’s really not what he’s saying at all. He’s said they’ll look into compromising on increasing revenue based on growth-oriented tax cuts. They’re still sticking to “tax-cuts-increase-revenues” for now. I could be conflating Boehner’s comments with some of the other comments made by congressional Republicans, I can’t find the article now. Norquist was definitely put off at some Republican calls for compromise, though. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/57 "2012-11-08T22:30:34Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > “But we never have this problem with Idaho.” That’s because in Idaho, the potatoes get a vote too… and we all know that they are about as “white bread” as produce gets. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/58 "2012-11-08T22:41:07Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > That’s because in Idaho, the potatoes get a vote too… and we all know that they are about as “white bread” as produce gets. The other states were planting too many red potatoes. It’s that darn demographic change again! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/59 "2012-11-08T23:21:15Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Today we salute you Mr “Spend 400 million and lose every race” Thank You! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/60 "2012-11-08T23:38:42Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > For those who don’t want to click through, he claims that Obama “suppressed the vote” by saying mean things about Romney and thereby making people not want to vote for him. > > Which is a truly revolutionary election strategy; I’m not sure why no one ever thought of it before. Mr. “would you vote for John McCain if you knew he fathered a black baby” is accusing someone else of saying mean things? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341.md?page=4)