I know it's almost become a cliche, but I'd just like to verbalize once again that Karl Rove is a demonic piece of crap. I think Joshua Green of the Atlantic Monthly agrees:

"If this year stays true to past form, the campaign will get nastier in the closing weeks, and without anyone's quite registering it, Rove will be right back in his element. He seems to understand - indeed, to count on - the media's unwillingness or inability, whether from squeamishness, laziness, or professional caution, ever to give a full estimate of him or his work. It is ultimately not just Rove's skill but his character that allows him to perform on an entirely different plane. Along with remarkable strategic skills, he has both an understanding of the media's unstated self-limitations and a willingness to fight in territory where conscience forbids most others."

Seriously... if you can't fairly convince the majority of people to endorse your ideology and instead have to rely on guys like this to swindle you into power, then your ideology sucks.