Karl Rove Playbook in Use -- Against McCain

Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush's election wins and the brains behind the 2004 attacks on John Kerry's military record, must be groaning today.

Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush's election wins and the brains behind the 2004 attacks on John Kerry's military record, must be groaning today. His signature tactic of attacking an opponent's perceived strength and turning it into a weakness or at least into a question mark is being used by the Democrats. Notice Ex-Gen. Wesley Clark calling John McCain "untested and untried" on national security. That's a tactic taken directly out of Rove's campaign playbook.

Here's another quote from Clark, a retired four-star general who spoke to the Huffington Post: "He's never had leadership in a crisis or in anything larger than his own element on an aircraft carrier or [in managing] his own congressional staff."

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Richard Sammon
Senior Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter