After leaving the White House this week, Karl Rove immediately set out to attack the number one threat to Republican power: Hillary Clinton. Rove made the media rounds and appeared on Rush Limbaugh's radio show to trash Hillary's campaign, and smeared Clinton by saying that she was divisive, unpopular, and unelectable.
MSNBC summarizes Karl Rove's attacks against Hillary:
For the second time in two days, a high-ranking White House official has taken issue with Hillary Clinton's recent critical campaign TV ad of President Bush. Yesterday, it was White House spokeswoman Dana Perino; today, it's none other than outgoing political adviser Karl Rove.
Rove -- who called Clinton a "fatally flawed" candidate the day he announced his resignation -- dialed in to Rush Limbaugh's radio show today, where he slammed Clinton's record on both health care and national security issues. "I'm a little bit surprised that somebody with a record so weak on these things would somehow deign to lecture this president," he said.
For those who haven't seen it already, here's the Clinton TV ad that Rove and White House spokesperson Dana Perino have been whining about:
Perino acted all offended and called Hillary's ad "outrageous." Blogger Steve Benen described the White House's angry reaction:
It seemed like a rather straightforward ad — nice music, simple theme, easy-to-embrace message. No muss, no fuss.
Except, the White House, showing absolute no message discipline at all, complained bitterly about it yesterday. A reporter asked Dana Perino if she wanted to respond to the ad. The obvious response is to take a pass, tell reporters that the White House doesn’t do advertising critiques, and steer clear of the 2008 race. Indeed, Perino initially seemed to realize the dynamic, telling reporters, "Well, this is going to be tricky going into the campaign season, when people start running ads, because as tempted as I am to take that head on, I think I will refer to the RNC for the specific — for answers on the politics of it."
But then Perino just couldn’t help herself.
"[A]s to the merits of [the Clinton ad], I think it’s outrageous. This is a President who, first and foremost, has helped millions of seniors across the country have access to prescription drugs at a much lower cost. That system that the President put in — helped put in place, with the help of both sides of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, Medicare Part D, is helping millions of people, and working better than anyone would have expected. In addition to that, the President has tried to take on the issue at the root cause of it, and tried to change our health care system so that we actually are helping provide less expensive but still great quality care to people all over the country.
"And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this President, I think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing."
Hillary was unfazed by the White House's complaints. "Apparently I’ve struck a nerve. The White House just attacked me a few minutes ago," Clinton said from the campaign trail in Iowa. "Not only have I said it and am saying it, I will keep saying it because I happen to believe it."
Frustrated, Karl Rove lashed out to the media and claimed that Hillary's unfavorable rating was in the "high 40's," and that therefore, it was impossible for her to be elected President.
According to the New York Times, Karl Rove got his facts wrong -- very wrong:
When Karl Rove said yesterday that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unfavorable rating was in the "high 40s," maybe he hadn’t seen the most recent CBS News poll. And when he said no one had been elected with negatives as high as hers, he had apparently forgotten some recent history.
The CBS News poll, conducted from Aug. 8 to Aug. 12, showed Mrs. Clinton’s unfavorable rating at 39 percent. That number has been falling bit by bit since its high mark of 46 percent in April.
That 46 percent was the highest negative rating measured by The New York Times and CBS News since the two news organizations began polling about Mrs. Clinton in 1992.
Over the last few months as her negative ratings have fallen, her positive ratings have fluctuated, with the most recent poll showing that 41 percent of voters have a favorable view of her. Mr. Rove’s point was this: "There’s nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position."
In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s husband was in that very position and did win. And Mrs. Clinton’s numbers are better than his were at this point in his first campaign for the White House.
In April 1992, only 26 percent of voters had a favorable view of Bill Clinton, while 40 percent viewed him unfavorably, according to a Times/CBS poll. By June 1992, his favorables had plunged further, so that only 16 percent had a favorable opinion, with 40 percent still unfavorable.
After Mr. Clinton won the nomination and after his convention, his favorable rating began to rise. By October 1992, his ratings had become about even, with 34 percent favorable and 35 percent unfavorable.
...EDIT
[emphasis added]
Why are the Bush White House and Karl Rove attacking Hillary? It's because Hillary is fighting for real change, just as she's done for her entire career, and when an effective, progressive politician fights for real change, the Republicans will stop at nothing.
Secondly, Rove and the Republicans want the Democratic primary race to be bloody and fiercely-contested, so that whomever emerges as the nominee goes into the general election battered and weak.
However, Rove and the Republicans are panicked, because Hillary is slowly pulling away with the nomination: a CBS News poll out this week gives her a 20-point lead over her nearest rival. In addition, she has been trending upwards over the summer, and her campaign is starting to move into high gear, as her message resonates with Democrats across the country. Nevertheless, she's not taking anything for granted, and as her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, has said, "we wake up every day and go to work as if we're behind in the polls."
SOURCES:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
http://bloggernista.com/...
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com...