# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/101 "2012-11-16T22:18:09Z")
Anybody remember this creepy gem? > [@](#): > > The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Rove was throwing around “reality based community” as a derogatory term and saying he and his people make up their own reality and impose it on everyone else. Didn’t work out too well on Election Day, did it? Actual reality got in the way. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/102 "2012-11-17T01:08:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Anybody remember this creepy gem? > > Rove was throwing around “reality based community” as a derogatory term and saying he and his people make up their own reality and impose it on everyone else. Didn’t work out too well on Election Day, did it? Actual reality got in the way. Ask a question to a deluded individual and you are going to get a delusional answer. He’s like a washed up boxer that just got the crap kicked out of him by a better opponent and thinks it’s a good idea to continue to still take fights. I hope the 'Pub’s and Fox News keep listening to him. He’s the Dem’s best weapon. Is he a mole? Anecdote. I was talking to my banker yesterday. He is connected to financial bigwigs. He told me that these delusional “Masters of the Universe” were really, truly, actually shocked on Wednesday to realize that Romney lost. No kidding. They were and are living in their own fantasy reality. ---
**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 17, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/103 "2012-11-17T01:53:03Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > Anecdote. I was talking to my banker yesterday. He is connected to financial bigwigs. He told me that these delusional “Masters of the Universe” were really, truly, actually shocked on Wednesday to realize that Romney lost. No kidding. They were and are living in their own fantasy reality. I don’t doubt this but most of the Repubs that I know, including my Dad who loves watching Fox news and is at least close to being a 1%'er knew what was coming. I, on the other hand, was pretty shocked that Kerry didn’t pull it off. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/104 "2012-11-17T02:10:08Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I don’t doubt this but most of the Repubs that I know, including my Dad who loves watching Fox news and is at least close to being a 1%'er knew what was coming. I, on the other hand, was pretty shocked that Kerry didn’t pull it off. I hear what you are saying. I’m talking about the 1/2 of 1%. (If you do the math, that’s a larger number than you might think.) The Greenwich, CT, 5th Ave. crowd who’s entire world view is finance and wealth (and greed). Not all of them, but too many of them. They live in a different reality. Too many of that bunch really have a sense of entitlement. That is supported by Romney’s remarks since the loss. He denigrates, “gifts to the poor” when his whole platform was gifts to the rich. As for Kerry, they are still swift-boating him so that he doesn’t become Secretary of Defense. The haters want an investigation. For crissakes, Bush gave Vietnam favored trade status. For whatever happened, that war is over, at least for the Vietnamese but not for idiot politicians with an agenda. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/105 "2012-11-17T02:43:04Z")
It was a timid hope, now blossomed and bloomed into a guarded optimism. Maybe the power of money is dimmed. Money talks, but not as loud? Next time Turd Blossom goes door to door with his gold plated begging bowl, he’ll be met with a lecture on cost-effectiveness. I’m thinking of that scene in the fairly recent Batman movies, where the Joker sets fire to all of that cash. Assuming those are Benjamins, how close is that pile to what the Adelson/Koch/Rove Goon Squad spent? The other sub rumor is not that it was poorly spent, but that it was stolen. Another abundantly cheerful thought! Now there is some goddam entrepreneurship! Not to say I stop worrying about it, still kind of a pessimist, but at least this time, the cynics were wrong. ---
**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 17, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/106 "2012-11-17T02:55:26Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > I hear what you are saying. I’m talking about the 1/2 of 1%. (If you do the math, that’s a larger number than you might think.) The Greenwich, CT, 5th Ave. crowd who’s entire world view is finance and wealth (and greed). Not all of them, but too many of them. > > They live in a different reality. Too many of that bunch really have a sense of entitlement. That is supported by Romney’s remarks since the loss. He denigrates, “gifts to the poor” when his whole platform was gifts to the rich. True. These are people with generational wealth and were born entitled. Dad grew up poor and did it all himself. He doesn’t want to share but he isn’t part of the entitled class either. He’s a lifelong workaholic who is in his mid-70’s and still works 60+ hours a week. Those other guys had everything handed to them their whole life but think that no one else should get “handouts.” ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/107 "2012-11-17T03:51:38Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I don’t doubt this but most of the Repubs that I know, including my Dad who loves watching Fox news and is at least close to being a 1%'er knew what was coming. I, on the other hand, was pretty shocked that Kerry didn’t pull it off. Well, you live in Cali. Here in Florida, the working stiffs (and even or especially upper class working stiffs - if you know what I mean) were STUNNED that Obama won. I only know a few really rich guys and the majority of them are Dems, so the sample size there is too small to even offer as an anecdote. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/108 "2012-11-17T05:15:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Anybody remember this creepy gem? > > Rove was throwing around “reality based community” as a derogatory term and saying he and his people make up their own reality and impose it on everyone else. Didn’t work out too well on Election Day, did it? Actual reality got in the way. Karl Rove is an asshole, but I don’t think it’s ever been confirmed who allegedly said that that and the New York Times reporter who claimed someone gave that quote to him has refused to say who said it. He does, rather implausibly IMHO claim that he overheard Rove screaming into a telephone that someone who he was apparently angry with would “get fucked like he’d never been fucked before!” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341/109 "2012-11-17T16:14:41Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Karl Rove is an asshole, but I don’t think it’s ever been confirmed who allegedly said that that and the New York Times reporter who claimed someone gave that quote to him has refused to say who said it. I was looking at a Wikipedia citation that said Rove was later named as the speaker, but on review it actually just says Rove is “widely known” to be the one who uttered those words. So maybe it was not him. In any event he was part of an administration that said stuff like this with a straight face, and the make-your-own-reality crowd did not do very well in this election. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-to-karl-rove/640341.md?page=5)