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Rove's Mysterious Resignation John LeBoutillier Let's analyze all the latest GOP news: 1) Mitt Romney's victory in the Iowa straw ballot was to be expected. Hell, he spent almost $482 per vote! But to his credit, he had a game plan and he stuck to it. And he is now the odds-on winner in the January Iowa caucuses. Plus, he is/was already ahead in New Hampshire (where he has a home and was the governor of the neighboring state with the biggest media market) and winning those first two contests will give him that elusive "big mo" everyone wants. What Iowa really tells us is how weak the GOP field is and how dispirited the GOP voters are. The turnout was much lower than in 1999 — the last time one of these was held. The enthusiasm factor was way, way down; most straw ballot voters had left hours before the results were announced. This mirrors the number of GOP donors this year. That number is also way, way down, as the number of Democratic donors is appreciably higher. This may be evidence of an enthusiam gap: GOP voters are down while Democrats are super-enthused over their chances to re-capture the White House next year.
What else we learned from Iowa: The so-called top-tier candidates refused to participate and there really are no stars in the field. Yes, former Gov. Mike Huckabee — a jovial and nice fellow — did very well with his second-place finish. And he earned himself new scrutiny as a possible top-tier candidate; he also is a strong veep candidate. A Southern Christian conservative would fit well with a northerner like Romney or Rudy.
Ron Paul — the hottest online candidate — did quite poorly at only 9 percent. Tom Tancredo came in fourth and will keep running.
Tommy Thompson is dropping out.
McCain and Giuliani both did terribly. Yes, they didn't participate — but they actually tried to pull a fast one.
While staying out officially, they still campaigned all over Iowa in hopes of doing surprisingly well. It didn't work at all.
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They both got creamed and thus are already in big trouble for the January caucuses.
Lesson: If you disrespect Iowa voters, they will not forget. 2) Rove's Resignation: What does it mean? Well, the Bush presidency is a dead volcano, and Bush's brain has run out of ideas. They were treading water anyway.
Rove is also entangled in several quiet federal investigations; this sudden resignation may be a result of those legal inquiries.
Do not believe this "spend more time with my family" baloney; that line is total hogwash.
There is more here than we know.
We will learn more in the next few days and weeks.
Politically, Rove will not advise any of the 2008 campaigns. They may ask, but he will stay away. Plus, he, and Bush, are almost radioactive these days and the 2008 GOP nominee will want to run as far away from Team Bush as possible. (Not that the Democrats will let him! The GOP nominee will be in tons of TV ads with old pix of him and Bush and in ads showing him morphing into another George W. Bush.) 3) Fred Thompson to tour Iowa. Strange, really. Iowa was all the focus the last few weeks in the run-up to the straw ballot. Now everyone in the media either has left Iowa or gone on a much-needed August vacation — and here comes the odd Fred Thompson campaign tour of Iowa. The timing of this, and everything Thompson does and does not do, is indeed strange.
He is fading - and fast. Conclusion: GOP primary voters, all across the country, continue to scratch their heads and ask, "Isn't there somebody better out there?" Indeed, there is a huge yearning for a new candidate, someone not even on the scene yet, someone to "ride to the rescue." There is still time. But it is running out for another candidate. Unless and until there is, the GOP will remain down and full of despair.
Editor's note:
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