August 14th, 2007: Politics, Politics and More to Follow

Karl Rove is out as the "Bush Brain," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney wins the Iowa Straw Poll.

First we go to Crawford, Texas where "The Architect" Karl Rove, President Bush's politics guru, announced he was packing up and leaving by the end of the month.

Karl Rove to Resign
At the End of August

Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, marking a turning point for the Bush presidency.

Mr. Rove's departure removes one of the White House's most polarizing figures, and perhaps signals the effective end of the lame duck administration's role in shaping major domestic policy decisions, where the former Texas political consultant was a driving force. Mr. Rove revealed his plans in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Goodbye, Karl.

Where to begin with this one. For Republicans like myself, its hard not to have mixed emotions about this news. On one hand, its hard to see Rove from behind the mud-smeared lenses in which liberal sycophants and the media alike have smeared him. After all, its not like he really reached out to them... at all... but then again why should he have? As the Wall Street Journal's editorial pointed out, Rove was a policy man for Bush, and as such did whatever he could to bring about the change needed to advance the principles America required (or would you have wanted Al Gore/John Kerry?). Ruthless, perhaps. But no different than James Carville was for Clinton. Democrats are only upset he cleaned there clocks for so long, 2006 notwithstanding. And even then, was it Rove's policy pumping that was at fault, or was it corruption in Congress that turned the tide for a Democratic majority? Methinks the latter.
Still, politicians will be falling over themselves to add their statements of good riddance. And those he helped most will likely remain silent to avoid any linkage between them and an unpopular figure. Such is politics, I suppose. But while my views on Rove fall far short of admiration, I can only hope that his formulas for building a GOP majority sans the corruption will resurface in future leaders.

And now to the future of the government, as the '08 election cycle, if you haven't heard, has been heating up. In fact, it has been since about April, but I don't blame you if you haven't been in-tune to the political minutiae thats been swirling lately. Thats because with the primaries starting sooner than ever, the race has been pushed forward at a dizzying pace with an incredible amount of debates, forums, and photo-ops already in the books. So who's in the lead, you ask? Well it depends who you ask, and where, but luckily even that is made clear with the wonderful interweb.

RealClearPolitics is an online resource that allows you to track -literally- everything. Polling puts Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton ahead of Sens. Barack Obama and John Edwards on one side and Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ahead of undeclared of Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney. But in America, we have a beautiful thing called federalism that allows states to have considerably more input on government working than the federal government. That means that state primaries combined with media tendencies to declare a candidate a "front-runner" and a "winner" as soon as possible tend to mutate the primary process. States at the beginning like Iowa and New Hampshire have the power to steer the nominating process. So when one looks at national polls and sees Hillary and Rudy in the lead, that really means nothing. Its polling in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida that are worth following. So a not-as-well-known candidate like Mitt Romney has been focusing on Iowa and New Hampshire where he can use wins there to boast him nationally. Meanwhile, Rudy is banking on his national image and Thompson is relying on Southern support in South Carolina.
The only problem with polling is that there are no real concrete results, even in a place like Iowa that gets polled every day. Thats why an event like the Ames Straw Poll means so much. Ames, a small town in Iowa holds the crucial GOP only straw poll to gauge presidential contenders as well as use it as a fund raiser for the state GOP. The event was held this past weekend, and as expected, Romney, who has built an incredible organization in the early states, came out on top.

AMES: The Romney Victory

Mitt Romney won the Ames straw poll tonight because of a combination of plod and money.

Romney was exultant in a brief speech to supporters, and campaign aides, attempting to keep expectations in check with the results, said the margin of victory represented a major validation of Romney’s extensive and expensive efforts in the first caucus state.

Since three major rivals skipped the event, since Romney had visited the state 17 times, since he spent so heavily to transport supporters to Ames today and because he ran Ames-related several statewide television advertisements, his victory was all but certain.

The temperature was on Romney’s mind as he addressed reporters. “It feels great to win. It’s a warm one. But if you thought it was hot, it felt cool to me to win.” Romney said the victory shows he can win “purple states” like Iowa. He acknowledged that turnout was low and said his campaign had anticipated a slightly larger number of votes.

Asked about McCain and Giuliani’s performances, Romney couldn’t resist a taunt. “It’s too bad the other guys weren’t competing here… but they ‘d have played if they thought they could have won,” he said.

Romney Wins Early Contest

Let me be clear, I am holding off on an endorsement until a little later, but Romney is the one with the momentum at this point. Even in national polls, Rudy is losing ground and the chosen-one star that Thompson was riding as he danced around when he was going to enter seems to be wearing off. Meanwhile, a win is a win for Romney and his numbers everywhere have been nothing but climbing. Still, it is very early, and everyone in the campaign knows not to breakout the champagne just yet.

There will be more to come soon, I promise. On deck, the Red Sox giving me daily heart attacks and Hal going to Washington ala Mr. Smith.

Until next time...