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POST-MORTEM

Karl Rove: Obama 'Suppressed the Vote'

President's victory was not all it seems, alleges Rove

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Politix

Karl Rove is taking heat from the left (again) for explaining that Obama's victory was down to a strategy of "suppressing the vote."

Rove doesn't mean the Democrats suppressed votes by conventional means, like shortening early voting hours, creating 7-hour long lines at the polls (a la Florida), or by intimidating voters at polling places. No, instead he is referring to the Obama campaign's unprecedented (ahem) tactic of running negative ads against Mitt Romney, which Rove alleges kept voters from the polls.

Via Talking Points Memo.
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Do negative attack ads count as 'suppressing the vote'?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    Laradian
    !
    As far as I know there has been no gloating on the Democrats side since Obama won. Can you imagine how much gloating the Republicans would be doing if Mitt had won.

    They were so sure their side would win. Rush Limbaugh was already pulling up in front of the White House with the moving van. They couldn't wait to send Obama back to Chicago. But they were wrong. They were wrong about the American people.

    I do hope that Obama has a successful second term and that he will meet halfway with reasonable Republicans. I don't see a time when the extremist on either side gain control.

  • View all 6 replies >

  • u
    Hireman
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    Axelrod would have said the same should Obama have lost. Problem is, these guys are part of the problem, and really damage the 'news' programs that don't tear them apart for stupid comments like they've made.
  • bsking
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    yeah but Axelrod would have been lying because Romney really didn't run that much negative ads against Obama in a personal nature. he ran against Obama's negative performance as a chief executive and his failures like Solyndra and the Union bail out.
    whereas from day 1 Hussein Obama attacked Mitt Romney the personality the man, is personal character.
    some what are you that Romney should have returned the favor and 1 after all of Obama's personality faults and all his past associations with anti American haters like Bill Ayers hey River in right. unfortunately for Romney he was raised a better.
  • MBernard
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    @bsking That means, the president is a formidable campaigner. Destroy the man, himself. That should be democrats new slogan.
  • u
    Hireman
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    @bsking I don't think Obamas attacks were any more personal than Romney's. What the main difference was is that a CEO has more direct authority on direction of a company than a president over a country, hence the appearance of more personal. What political strategists seize on nowadays is divisive issues and inflate them. It's truly damaging.
  • u
    MIDutch
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    @bsking Please, the biggest problem that Romney had was his mouth. All of the ammunition that Obama used in his ads were ones that Romney handed to him on a silver platter. DId you forget the 47% speech? Did you forget about the "Jeep production to China" speech? Did you forget about the "get rid of FEMA and have the private sector take of major national disasters " speech? Romney convinced America to vote against him, not Obama's ads. Further, one of Romney's most important advisors was Karl Rove, the KING of negative attack ads.
  • bsking
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    there is truth to that. I talk to a lot of people and leading up to the election are great number of people even some in the media put forth the idea that it doesn't matter they're all the same as far as politicians go . so yeah roll this is writing some respect. but like you seeing 1 of the previous comments, when people refer to the man in the White House as the " o man". it shows you what kind of electorate he had.
  • martydotcom
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    Boo Hoo, poor Karl Rove pissed away A reported $103 mil in advertising and lost in damn near every race he invested. Just his physical presence suppressed the GOP vote. Maybe you should question the message he was trying to sell. A majority wasn't buying. Who would have. thought the Dems would oick up seats in both the house and senate. Who in their right mind would donate to his PAC in the future, like throwing your money away. I wonder what Karl took off the top?
  • stepped_in_it
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    Ok, I voted the other guy...you know, the white, suited multi-moneyarie! He lost! Time to HEAL, move on and try to make the best of the situation! Played football in HS. When we won, we celebrated! When we lost, come Monday, we went back to work to fix "our problem"....ie, why did we lose? America, quit pointing fingers, quit taunting, quit falling into THEIR class warfare that fragments US! Look at who (whom) your voting for....research him/her....become involved....vote by your heart/head, not by party....It's for YOUR children.....and MINE!
  • wild_turkey6
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    I live in a state that was pretty much in the bag for Romney so neither candidate spent a lot of money there on ads. Regardless, I didn't vote for either of those clowns. For Rove to say that negative ads influenced my vote is an insult to my intelligence. Sore loser.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  • u
    Cheenoguy
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    So basically his accusation is;
    "It isn't fair! His campaign pointed out all the ways our guy lies and how he would be bad for the country. Only we are supposed to be able to do that!"
  • o
    IraqWarVeteran
    !
    "They defeated the greatest power in the world in a couple days. Walked right over us. And these were only the first. They'll keep coming. This is not a war any more than there's a war between men and maggots... This is an extermination."
    In my comprehension the United States — the greatest power in the world,— was defeated in a couple days — November 5th and 6th. They will continue to coming — liberals will continue to join the unconstitutional and unlawful political idiology. A war between the man and maggots — war between the Republicans and Democrats. An extermination — politically and mentally changing the nation to division we can't afford.
  • UWILLAL
    !
    Rove just admitted what a lousy president Romney would have made. Even his supporters wouldn't vote for him because his opponent told Romney's supporters not to vote and according to Rove they didn't. If that's all it takes to turn Romney's supporter away he obviously didn't inspire his own supporters very much as a candidate. Karl, good luck explaining to all those billionaires how you wasted their money in this campaign.
  • Krusty
    !
    Rove is upset that they denigrated his business acumen and character?! What ... A hedge fund? A banker? Why would anyone be suspicious if that 4 years after passing HR1424 "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" that gave the Sec. of the Treasury (a Banker) the ability to write checks to purchase "worthless assets" without over site from any authority for trillions of dollars, and transfer failed mortgages back to Fannie and Freddie? How foolish of these uneducated slobs to not recognize a man whose website had no real actionable plan to fix the TBTF problem, but instead wanted to remove more regulation. Of course Roce us angry. Maybe the populace of this country is smarter than him.
  • Speedieg
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    If the Republican Party intends to be successful in the future it must shed the dinosaurs like Rove and the Koch brothers. Doubling Down on a losing hand is just a way to lose more.
  • u
    KyleMFb
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    HELL NO!!!!!!!!!! That's the stupidest thing I've EVER heard the republicans were the ones surpressing the vote and they still lost with all there nasty tricks they tried its stupid that they say Obama ran a negitive ads against Romney that prevented people from voting obama ran ads exposing who mitt Romney really is and that's a moron Mormon vulture capitalist that fires americains and ships their jobs over seas and buys company's and runs them in to the ground with debt and sells them it's hard to paint mitt Romney in a positive picture there's nothing positive about him why dont you think he released his taxes bc he knew it would be the end of him bc if all his shaddy bussness ventures his stupid ugly wife addmited on tv they had shit to hide and then later she goes on tv and says shes concerned about mitts mental health you got to be kiding me not to mention there moocher kid saying he wanted to punch the president there's nothing good about to say about mitt Romney but all theses idiots say he donates to charity NO he don't he gives his money to his cult bc it's required by his cult that cult members give a percentage of their income to the cult
  • ferntinley
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    If a voter is going to be influenced by negative ads, they do not deserve the privilege of voting. It is their responsibility to do the research on their own instead of just plopping their lazy asses in front of the television and believing what they see there. I hope all the mindless fools who voted for obama again get exactly what's coming to them.
  • u
    Lorth
    !
    Good advice Thunder - when my neighbors grandad started spouting stuff like that - they put him in a home......
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