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Speaking to the executive directors of state Republican parties on Wednesday, Karl Rove offered a sneak preview of how the GOP might go after Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the fall.
Looking trimmer since he left the White House, Rove targeted Clinton on spending. “She’s already proposed $800 million in new spending and the campaign is less than half over,” said Rove. “She says, ‘I have a million ideas and the country can’t afford them all.’ And for once I agree with her.”
Noting the results in Tuesday’s Michigan primary, he said, “237,000 [voters] turned out to vote for ‘uncommitted.’ Think about it: She’s running against nobody and nobody got 40 percent of the vote. She can’t barely [sic] beat nobody.”
As for Obama, Rove said, “In the Illinois Senate, he’d show up and vote ‘present’ on controversial topics,” including abortion, the Second Amendment and privacy for sex offenders. “Why does he not have the courage of his convictions?”
He said as for the GOP, its ultimate nominee has to do four things immediately: “Create a sustained narrative about themselves”; ‘immediately engage on the kitchen table issues”; “campaign aggressively in all the places where Republicans don’t normally campaign” and “demonstrate that they are strong on the issue of Iraq.”
Upon concluding, Rove promised, “I’ll be happy to answer or duck any questions just as soon as we get the media out of here.”
And with that, the Fourth Estate was ushered out of the room.
