‘Bush’s brain’ leaves the White House

If you want to get an idea of how important Karl Rove was to George W. Bush imagine if Peter Mandelson, Philip Gould and Alastair Campbell had all been rolled into one person who advised Tony Blair. In some ways, even this doesn’t do Rove justice as he had been with Bush long before he blipped onto the national political radar; they first met back in 1973. Rove memorably described the encounter to Newsweek thus: “I’m there with the keys and this guy comes striding in wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a bomber jacket,” he recalls. “He had this aura.” It was political love at first sight.

There has always been an element of the nerd and the jock in the relationship between the two men, exemplified by Rove’s acceptance of the nickname “Turd Blossom.” But Rove was was less Bush’s brain than the man who could turn his boss’s gut instincts into a political agenda. He was essential to Bush’s self-definition of himself as the antithesis of the east-coast, country club, Rockefeller Republican. Rove carefully fostered Bush’s contempt for elites and belief in the almost moral superiority of downscale voters and turned into a campaign platform.

This world view was summed up by the rather hyperbolic statement Bush made to his cabinet straight after his victory in 2004.

“There are only country club Democrats. This election was won by people that carry lunch pails to work. I think that if it had just been policemen and firemen voting in this election, I would have won most –you know 90 percent of the vote.”

Ultimately, Rove might have failed to re-align US politics and his attempt to forge a new governing coalition of Christian conservatives, Reagan Democrats and Hispanics has collapsed under its own contradictions but he still won two presidential campaigns which is vastly more than most political tacticians achieve. His departure marks the end of the political term of the Bush White House. Now, everything that it does will be concentrated on winning time for the surge in Iraq. In some ways, Rove’s departure will make this easier as it will improve relations with the Hill, where Rove’s arrogance never went over well, and assuage fears that the White House is using Iraq for political ends.