White House strategist Karl Rove said Monday that Americans are “in a sour time” but remain predominantly conservative and will not abandon Republican candidates in the fall elections.
“Look, we’re in a sour time — I readily admit it,” Rove told reporters after a speechat the American Enterprise Institute. “I mean, being in the middle of a war where people turn on their television sets and see brave men and women dying is not something that makes people happy and optimistic and upbeat.”
But Rove discounted predictions that Republicans will be punished in the November elections, saying similar predictions did not come true in the last election cycle. In 2004, Republicans won the White House and increased their majorities in the House and Senate.
“I heard this same kind of language about the 2004 elections in roughly the March, April, May, June period of … 2004,” Rove said. “We’re going to be just fine in the fall elections.
“And we’re going to be fine because we stand for things that are important. We stand for a strong national defense. We stand for economic policies that are pro-growth, involving tax cuts and free trade.”
Rove said such a clearly defined agenda is what the Democrats lack.
“Whether it is the nomination of superbly qualified men and women to the judiciary or our policies to reauthorize the Patriot Act to keep America safe in a time of global terror, the other party seems to stand for little except obstructionism,” he said. “And ultimately, the American people are a center-right country who, presented with a center-right party with center-right candidates, will vote center-right.”
Rove said the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq exerts a constant downward pressure on the president’s job approval ratings and even darkens the public’s perception of a booming economy.
“The war looms over everything,” he said.
“The American people like this president, but they’re just sour right now on the war. And that’s the way it’s going to be.”
