Karl Rove Rips Palin, Shows Tea Party Skepticism
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In an interview he did with The Telegraph, Rove said:
"There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world.”
He added: "Being the vice-presidential nominee on the ticket is different from saying 'I want to be the person at the top of the ticket."
Rove has expressed his doubts about Tea Partiers before, including Deleware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. He told FOX News in September:
"I’ve met her. I wasn’t frankly impressed by her abilities as a candidate. One thing that O’Donnell is now going to have to answer in the general election that she didn't in the primary is her own checkered background.”
Two days later, Rove reversed his position, saying she would make suitable Senator after all. It's possible that Palin herself had a lot to do with the reversal. A writer at Newser suggested:
"Karl Rove has apparently heard his master's voice and flip-flopped on his support for anti-masturbation candidate Christine O'Donnell. He now endorses the Delaware candidate without hesitation, even though he was very concerned just two days ago about her "nutty" ideas, iffy character, tax dodging, and misrepresentations. Rove apparently saw the light when Sarah Palin chided Rove on Fox to "buck up" and get with the new party program."
Whether Rove is now committed to back the Tea Party or not, it's clear that he'll be holding his nose. He said to Der Spiegel in late October:
“If you look underneath the surface of the Tea Party movement, you will find that it is not sophisticated."
That may be stating the obvious, but this is a man who still insists that Bush was right about Iraq, phantom WMDs be damned.
As the Tea Party stands mobilized to take serious power on Nov. 2, Karl Rove will likely be sitting on the sidelines clicking his tongue. Then again, who knows what he'll be saying next month.
