Rove picks the wrong metaphor to slam Obama

June 23, 2008

Karl Rove has made it clear on multiple occasions that he actively dislikes Barack Obama — if there’s a more helpful testament to the strength of Obama’s character, it doesn’t come to mind — and he continues to make his criticisms of the Democratic candidate more and more personal.

ABC News’ Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as “coolly arrogant.”

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy,” Rove said, per Christianne Klein. “He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

Rove said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “needs to come right at him.” He referred to the latest Newsweek poll showing Obama with a 15-point lead over McCain as nonsense, though he used a more scatological synonym. Rove said he was heading over to the White House for lunch and a chat with the President, Klein reports.

Andrew Sullivan noted that Rove is “revealing more about his own insecurities than Obama’s.” I think that’s certainly true, but it’s worth going even further.

Of all the metaphors Rove could have used to attack the first credible African-American candidate for the presidency, he had to go with “the guy at the country club”? Seriously? Jake Tapper noted, accurately, that Obama “wouldn’t be admitted into many country clubs that members of the Capitol Hill Club frequent.”

Indeed, this is also surprisingly off-message for Rove.

For months, Rove has sought to characterize Obama as a dangerous outsider who we don’t really know and can’t trust. Everything about him, the argument goes, is “foreign.” The various far-right smears — about Obama’s religion, his family, his name, his patriotism — are all part of the same conservative frame.

Now, however, Obama’s part of the country-club set? Hanging around with a martini? If I’m not mistaken, Rove is talking about the ultimate insider — which is the opposite of the message Rove was emphasizing up until very recently. Can’t these guys pick one smear and go with it?

And finally, Greg Sargent notes the irony of Rove’s attack.

It should also be noted, of course, that Rove took a man who actually is a country club denizen who makes “snide comments” about others — that would be George W. Bush — and turned him into a regular Joe. Meanwhile, the guy who would struggle for admittance to some of these exclusive enclaves — Obama — is now “the guy at the country club.” Rovian up-is-downism at its finest.

Exactly. Rove’s description sounds spot-on like Bush — right down to the “snide comments” he makes about people who pass him by.

Rove is going to have to do better than this. Usually his ugly attacks aren’t quite this silly.

LOL, hate to say it, but the Porker sounds jealous of Obama. He probably couldn’t get any dates when he was young.

  • You might want to fix the typo in the paragraph beginning “For months, Rove has sought to characterize Rove…”. It’s fairly clear that the latter “Rove” should read “Obama”,
    but still…

  • Snide comments? From the Bush named ‘turd-blossom’.

    I think Rove is crushed that his permanent Repub majority is about to turn into a two decade Dem majority, so much so that “nonsense” is about all he is capable of anymore

  • —It must be this week’s new Repug talking point, one we’ll hear parroted throughout the right-wing circus. Obama’s an elitist, intellectual snob, a closet commie-pinko who looks down on po’ white folks.

  • Poor Rove. He’s so frustrated he can’t paint Obama as an elitist, latte-sipping, wind-surfing,$400 coiffed Democrat girlie-man that he’s spitting nails. Obama knows how to project strength without blustering, leadership without equivocating and charisma because he’s got it (unlike anybody in the Old White Guy’s Party). What will Rove try next? Getting some lowlife to “spill the beans” about Obama’s wide stance? Oh, wait. Wasn’t there some guy named Larry Sinclair, who got arrested after doing that (no doubt with Rove’s connivance) at the National Press Club? Just a coincidence, I’m sure…

  • Do I see an “O’bama is uppidy” ad coming? There might not be no 527’s throwing around their BS yet, but as sure as the sun rises in the East, ads using Rover’s sick characterizations and worse will appear, and McSame, the hawk who will bomb, bomb, Iran, will say he can’t do anything to stop the 527’s.

    If McSame can’t control his own party, how can he be expected to govern America?

  • It must be this week’s new Repug talking point

    And that’s the quandary the Republicans are in this cycle. Their usual play would b e to find the “key demo”, then paint the Democrat as the exact opposite. But now, with everyone soured on Bush and the Republican brand, they have too many caricatures to make; they can’t stick with just one. It’s like a chameleon on plaid — they’re frantically flipping from caricature to caricature and exhausting themselves in the process.

    It’s glorious to watch.

  • For months, Rove has sought to characterize Rove as a dangerous outsider who we don’t really know and can’t trust. Everything about him, the argument goes, is “foreign.”

    If only that were true.

  • One must be able to frequent the country club to recognize its staple characters. Karl Rove: Man of the (Wealthy) People. Bush’s brain sadly remains only Karl’s personality, I guess. Maybe Karl can make himself a really cool avatar and vanquish Obama in a virtual world and overcome his glaring sense of inadequacy.

  • After checking out Rove’s early biography at Wikipedia, he actually is who I expected him to be:

    …he was elected student council president his junior and senior years. He became skilled in debate. He says “I was the complete nerd. I had the briefcase. I had the pocket protector. I wore Hush Puppies when they were not cool. I was the thin, scrawny little guy. I was definitely uncool.”

    And this:

    In 1960, at the age of nine, Rove decided to support Richard Nixon, got into a physical fight about it with a politically-motivated girl, and lost.

  • Even power isn’t a big enough aphrodisiac to get Karl laid.
    You mean that being pudgy and arrogant isn’t attractive? Compared to Rove, Henry Kissinger is a chick magnet.

  • An undeserved reputation surrounds Rove which he himself has created and got the press to post like the good stenographers they are. Rove is gutter trash. Came from the gutter and disguises himself as upper crust because he’s able to get close to the president which by itself speaks volumes. A true embarrassment to the American political system who hopefully one day will be jailed.

    He describes not only Bush but himself though it is deeply disguised by “the beautiful date” comment. Rove’s character can be witnessed by any of his public appearances as the one constantly making snide comments about everyone.

    He’ll just go pop in on the president at the WH so they can have fun mocking everyone.

    It truly reveals Rove’s nature that he would make such vile comments…thinking he is being funny or tough when actually it just shows how truly pathetic his gutter personality is.

  • This is completely a tactic of Franklin/Orthogonian (example pulled from Perlstein’s Nixonland).

    Poise your opponent as elitist, playboy, the popular (or lickspittle) person at school who would never be your friend. To pull it off, you’ll need a candidate who is willing to fight every bit, or a complicit media.

    Rove isn’t doing anything new, that hasn’t been done before.

  • Props to Christianne Klein for not reporting this as “a source close to McCain suggested” and instead named Rove.

    Pretty cool.

  • Rove probably figures that Obama is so elitist that he would never do fun stuff like having his genitals pierced like Karl’s dad did so often.

  • I can just see Obama at the Correspondents’ Dinner, sitting smugly at a table with Michelle and the Pelosis, rolling their eyes at the idiot dancing on stage with David Gregory like a minstral-show-meets-rap fool. “What’s your name?” “MC Rove.”

  • Hark, hark, the dogs do bark.

    Someone tell Karl to lay off that dogwhistle.

    Here’s my translation of what Karl meant: “Oh noes, that uppity brown dude is laughing at you!”

    But he does come off as a tad … bitter. Doesn’t he?

    I also think its interesting that he refers to Obama’s beautiful “date.” Maybe he’s thinking of Harold Ford.

  • Except the part where Bush has a beautiful date doesn’t work for me. I’m speaking for myself, but perhaps many women have difficulty imagining him with a woman. His wife follows along like Barney, out of duty. I’d have an easier time believing he was gay, for some reason.

  • Wow, I sure do feel sorry for those poor humble country club folk who have to suffer the elitist sneers of martini-sippers like Obama.

  • Rove will keep slinging shit until something sticks. Doesn’t matter what it is. As for envy, yeah. Rove is and always has been one sick, maladjusted little man.

  • I think I know what Rove is talking about and yes, it is far more revealing of his own insecurities than anything else. Most of us have probably had the experience of coming into contact with someone who just seems better at everything than we are. They are smarter, better looking, more successful, more well liked by others etc. Its just human nature that we often harbor an irrational dislike for that person through no real fault of their own. For someone like Karl, this sort of thing must happen all the time and it sounds like that is definitely what is going on here. He is trying to rationalize his dislike for Obama but its really a pretty transparent case of jealousy.

    I mostly try to stay away from the amateur psychoanalysis of pols but it is really difficult to interpret this remark any other way. It makes absolutely no sense on its own terms.

  • “I was the thin, scrawny little guy. I was definitely uncool.”

    Well, Rove has certainly dealt with one of those issues by now. But the interesting point about Rove’s comment is that he may believe that even if the vast majority of voters don’t belong to country clubs, they might imagine that Obama does–is Rove appealing to a combination of class envy and white privilege? That’s probably ascribing too much intelligence to Rove, but certainly not too much underhandedness.

  • “snide remarks”?

    You mean like “the president launched an illegal war based on lies”?
    or “the president’s advisors will be investigated”?

    I can’t wait til Obama’s Attorney General takes a look at you and your criminal friends, Karl.

  • Please Compare And Contrast ” Presidential Temperament” of our Presidential presumptive nominees? ROVE HAS LED AMERICA INTO A DEEP HOLE AND HE WILL BE FIRST PERSON TO SINK INTO IT>

    Dear American Voters, reporters, media. professionals, political parties, and presidential Nominees,

    1. Presidential “Temperament and Caliber”.
    2. Little Washington “insider Versus outsider” experience.
    3. “Vision and mission” for our nation future rather than past.
    4. American policies, ” first U.S.A Centric” than any other country [ ies ] centric.

    In my professional opinion Senator Obama leads in all above qualities and attributes.

    Senator Obama and his administration along with congress will address all the critical current and future domestic and foreign issues, challenges, and opportunities in coming years.

    Let us read and remember following concepts:

    ” Family, Friends, Fellows, Faith, Funds, Foundation [s], Fun, with Freedom & Fairness and without Fear, Favor, & Failure” . It applies to every citizen of our Greatgrand Nation.

    Please stay involved, stay engaged, and stay informed. Please do not allow any seduction, deception, and or confusion by some partisan media and leaders effect your vote [ Psychological Terrorism ]..

    Yours truly,

    COL. [retd] A.M.Khajawall
    Disabled American Veteran
    Forensic psychiatrist, Las Vegas

    PS: Please talk about the ” Presidential Temperament And Caliber ” of our presumptive presidential Nominees. We do talk about the “Judicial Temperament” of our Supreme Court Justices nominees and so far we have failed to talk about the ” Presidential Temperament ” of our presumptive presidential nominees. The ” Presidential Temperament ” is the ultimate and in my opinion only requirement of our president as that effects every living soul here and around the world.

    Thanks once again.

  • another arrow in the “I just don’t know” Republican quill.

    You know the old saying about you can’t fool all of the people all of the time?

    Rove and his ilk are trying to fool JUST ENOUGH of the people, SOME of the time. Every time they open theire privilged cakeholes and spew another Obama slander, it’s in the hopes that at least SOME people, A FEW, believe it, or at least, wonder if it MIGHT be true.

    First, his name sounds a lot like a terrorist’s name. Can we trust him?
    Then, he’s a Muslim. Schooled in a madrassa. Siphon off some voters.
    Then, he’s part of a cuh-ray-zee church with an anti-American pastor who Obama considers a close friend. A few more voters decide to wait and see.
    Then, Michelle said Whitey & never felt proud to be an American! Wait for the tape! And while you’re waiting, start to wonder if perhaps this uppity candidate is more trouble then he’s worth.
    Then, there’s this guy who failed a polygraph, but he claims to have had drug-fueled gay sex with Obama! Doesn’t it make you wonder? Doesn’t it just?
    Hey, how patrotic is Obama anyway? *I* heard he never puts his hand over his heart during the Star-Spangled Banner! And where the hell is his flag pin?
    He gave Hillary the finger!
    He’s too arrogant!
    He’s an insider!
    He’s an elitist!

    Any person paying attention can see all of this and everything else I left out is a load of crap. Not only that, a lot of it is contradictory. But not everyone is paying attention, and the GOP knows it. If you went on to believe JUST ONE of those awful Obama smears, then it might be enough to make you wonder if this election is too important to be left to the likes of stupid old YOU. Maybe you should just stay home, watch Cops, eat a Hot Pocket and wait for other, smarter, more reasoned people to decide your fate. Yeah, that’s probably better. Go sleep now. Shhh shhh shhh, when you wake up, you’ll neeeeever have to worry about Obama’s intentions again, even if they are honorable, but you just don’t know and why chance it?

  • To excerpt my book manuscript:

    But it was in William Henry Harrison’s campaign of 1840 that politics took on a fervor of the kind we’ve seen before in religious revivals. The “anti-monarchy” party — the Whigs — only succeeded in electing one president during this period. This was because they were only once able to shake the perception that they were the party of the rich. Perhaps because they were, in fact, the party of the rich. They had brought the new religious right — the revivalists — into the fold, but this was not enough to make the difference in times like these.
    But William Henry Harrison’s campaign for president took a new tack for the Whigs. A Democratic paper had sneered that Harrison was an old man — he was 67 — who should retire to a log cabin with a barrel of hard cider. The Whigs took this idea and ran with it, agreeing that yes, Harrison was the kind of man who would retire to a log cabin and drink hard cider. Martin Van Buren, the president, was actually the man in this race who had been raised on a working class farm. Harrison’s father had signed the Declaration of Independence and been governor of Virginia — as elite as it gets. But these realities weren’t allowed to interfere with campaign rhetoric. Van Buren was portrayed as a dandy who drank champagne while Harrison was portrayed as a cider-drinking “common man.”
    And so began what has been called the most extraordinary political campaign in American history — the Log Cabin Campaign of 1840….

  • “I’d have an easier time believing he was gay, for some reason.”

    That reason would be named Jeff Gannon.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon

    And for more details on all those sleepovers he had with George and his pals- http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05212005.html

    Amazing that this guy just faded into the background. I suspect if Bill had had Monica throw softballs at him at a press conference, it would have gotten a wee bit more press. Ya think?

  • “If you went on to believe JUST ONE of those awful Obama smears, then it might be enough to make you wonder… ” –slappy magoo @ 31

    Nicely put.

  • I don’t think Steve is picking up on the real racist meaning here. Best take I’ve seen is from Tim Dickinson.

    “If you unpack this it’s really disgusting. He’s playing to all the worst classist and racist fears of the Greatest Generation. Obama’s the uppity black guy who some court forced your country club to admit and now he’s flaunting his sexual appetites — why is Rove painting the long-married Obama as a swinging bachelor? — and looking down on you. It’s all said with a veil of civility, but the Lee Atwater-ian subtext couldn’t be clearer.”

  • Let me add one other thing. I’m only slightly surprised Rove didn’t top off the imagery by suggesting Obama’s there with a “beautiful blonde date” — as stoking those old miscegenation fears is clearly something he meant to do.

  • He probably couldn’t get any dates when he was young.

    Of course he couldn’t and it’s not hard to see why. Women tend not to want to date men who get their ass kicked by girls.

  • Same ol’ same ole for Rove. Attack the other guy for your guy’s weaknesses. It really is getting tired and desperate.

  • The best comment on this has come from Jake Tapepr, of all people. He says that at the country club Rove would be the guy who scratches your car and blames it on the staff.

  • Slappy at 31 might right. I’m getting slightly affected by the arrogance charge. The seal, the “you’re likable enough, Hillary”, assuming that we’d trust him on the spy powers…not in any kind of “uppity” sense, just a certain arrogant manner, a lot like professors tend to talk to everyone like they’re students.

  • McCain looks old enough now to be Bob Dole’s dad (at the time of his candidacy) He is not 72 years young.

  • For the record: I much prefer men who are “coolly arrogant”, to men who are “hotly arrogant”. The first *are* superiour, usually (though still annoying); the second tend to be insecure bullies, trying to browbeat you into thinking they’re wonderful.

    Rove’s imagery — Obama at a country club, with a beautiful date, sipping a martini and making snide comments about everyone else — reminds me of two of my own experiences connected to the country clubs.

    1) 35 yrs ago. My future husband took me to meet his family and we all went out to dinner at their country club. Sparkling crystal, gleaming tablecloths, the whole nine yards. I looked around… “How strange,” I said “all diners are white and wearing black and all waiters are black and wearing white”. I was told later that the observation, while factuall accurate, was *not* the best conversation opener I could have made.

    2) 2 yrs ago. A pre-dinner reception at a wedding; essentially the same crowd that would have dined in that room 35 yrs ago. We’re standing in a little group, chatting. One of the (elderly) ladies finished her drink. The room being crowded and me being some 20yrs younger, I offered to fetch her another one. “Oh, that’s not necessary.” she says “Luckily, this young lady is right here”. The “young lady” she pointed to was my son’s date. One of the only two blacks in the crowd. So, naturally, it was assumed she was there as a servant, even though she was dressed to the nines, in a floor-length evening dress, while all the servers wore uniforms. I had never, in my entire life, been so mortified, not even when it was pointed out to me, that I was using the wrong utensils at a multi-course dinner (typical Polack commie peasant, with straw peeking out of her ears).

    So yeah, Rove knew exactly what he was whistling and to whom.

    Callimaco, @36,

    Rove didn’t need to say “beautiful, *blonde*, date”. The audience he was speaking to, “beautiful” and and “blonde” are interchangeable.

  • Catherine:
    Pardon the pedantry, but the opening of your excerpt confuses me. The “anti-monarchy” party — the Whigs — only succeeded in electing one president during this period. If you mean the time pre-Harrison, the Whig party elected no candidates. It only came into existence during the Jackson Presidency. If you are referring to John Quincy Adams, he was a “Democratic-Republican” like all candidates running in 1824. He later joined the Whig party, but he was hardly one — nor was he particularly conservative, in 1824. The first Whig candidate elected was Harrison, the only other one was Zachary Taylor. (Both died in office. No one knew what Harrison would have been like, because he died so soon. Taylor was hardly the ‘candidate of the rich.’ He really was what Harrison had been portrayed as, a ‘rough, unlettered non-political war hero.” In office he proved to be surprisingly anti-slavery, and opposed Clay’s Compromise of 1850 and wouldn’t have signed it. It was his successor, Millard Fillmore, who did sign it.)

    In fact, I find it hard to argue that the Whig Parety had any consistent policy on anything. In one election — 32, 36? — they ran three candidates, one in each section of the country, hoping to throw the election into the House. They failed.

    And there was NO connection between the Revivalists and today’s RRs, either politically or theologically Politically, they were most prominent because of their abolitionism. I won’t bore people here with a discussion of the theological differences, but if you e-mail me, i’ll be glad to discuss them

    PLEASE look at the past in its own terms, and don’t try to force it into today’s template, because it won’t fit.

  • You aren’t going to convince very many people (not already Obama supporters) that calling Obama arrogant = “uppity”. Obama is arrogant — even John Edwards thought so. It would be better for Obama to start trying to come across as less arrogant, than for everyone to pretend Rove is playing a race card. When it comes to something people can see for themselves, that spin won’t work.

    All those snide comments Obama made about Clinton resonate in Rove’s image, but the proposed country club-threat explanation doesn’t. Few people are care about Obama breaking a color bar at the country club (that kind of integration happened decades ago and the popularity of Tiger Woods undercuts that meme). Obama had his fun during the primary but now his snubs and treatment of others will come back to haunt him. I would take this seriously because viscerally people understand that Rove is saying something true about Obama (at least as he has come across so far). Rove is mostly reminding us that Obama looks down on poor whites frustrated and clinging to guns or religion or whatever those inbred folks do in Appalachia.

    Obama has no right to accuse people of racism for calling him arrogant until he understands how to be a man of the people, all of the people. Right now, he is clueless and I think Rove is right that this is a vulnerability for Obama — remember how easy it was to undermine Gore for his stiffness and wonkishness? It wouldn’t have worked if Gore weren’t actually stiff and wonkish. Obama is arrogant — he needs to either admit it or work on it, but calling more people racists isn’t the solution.

  • I’ve surfed the Web long enough to know that snark is a blood sport of both the left and right. But I’ve never heard it in any of the public utterances of Obama. Now Rove’s comment that liberals offered therapy to Islamist terrorists–that’s snark.

  • I predict that by next week, Republicans will be referring to Obama as “…that Negro.”

  • Mary, IMO you are hardly a credible arbiter of what constitutes racially coded language. Rove isn’t pitching to the lowest common denominator with his metaphore any more than Tucker Carlson was when he said he felt a need to cross his legs when Senator Clinton was around. Lots of men (and women, maybe) think she is a heartless, merciless ball-buster; thank gawd someone could confirm the truth!

    Also glad to know that Tiger Woods’ popularity undercuts the “meme” that clubs still exist that have “exclusive” membership policies. Looking back, Jackie Robinson’s popularity probably undercut the “meme” that we needed civil rights legislation. Boy, did we waste some time and national angst over that one!

    I know I am going to regret this, but could you please cite examples of “All those snide comments Obama made about Clinton”? You are very prone to conflating the actions and attitudes of Obama supporters with Obama himself. So, please, remind me about all of Obama’s snide remarks about Senator Clinton.
    Also, I see no evidence in the post above that Obama is saying that Rove’s metaphor of the country club character is code for “uppity negro.” The people making this analyis are journalists, bloggers, and blog commenters. Again with the conflation thing.

    Sleep well in the comfort of knowing you have a new BFF, Karl Rove.

  • How is this “off message” for Karl Rove?

    “….holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

    It is classic projectionist – Rove in nutshell, because Rove is the ONE that would be on leaning on the wall, making snide comments – in fact that is exactly what he is doing with this comment. Snide comments have always been Rove’s forte, how is it that you Dems still don’t know that?

  • Mary, one day you”ll have to come to grips with the fact that you are an angry, bitter person filled with contempt with anyone who doesn’t let you get what you want, even when what you want isn’t what you need. In fact, you are SO angry & bitter, you’ll cuddle up to the people who would actively try to do you harm to “get back” at people trying to help, but not in the way that you want help. Much like a spiled teenager f*cking the biggest juvie in her school without protection because her daddy would only buy her a used car and not a new one. Try not to have sharp objects around the day that happens, because it’ll be messy. Toodles.

  • @ Callimaco

    “I’m only slightly surprised Rove didn’t top off the imagery by suggesting Obama’s there with a “beautiful blonde date””

    Exactly ….then adding how the young girl was once part of a good family raised well by American Christian parents in a non crazy church. LOL

    Austin of Sundrip

  • Mary, Obama was the only presidential cadidate filling sand bags in Iowa. Bush wouldn’t even stoop to that level. Yes, Obama is a real elitist alright!

  • I think it should be noted that Mr. Rove never completed college. Yes, the man who has been advising our brilliant president doesn’t have a college degree (as well, Glen Beck doesn’t either.) So when Mr. Rove snidely refers to the “elitism” of Obama, he is illustrating the jealously of a dropout versus a Magna Cum Laude from Harvard. Sorry, Karl–

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