JACKSONVILLE, Florida - Take it from an expert. Karl Rove, known as the architect of President George W. Bush’s electoral victories, believes White House candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have gone too far in their attacks on each other.
Rove, speaking on the television program Fox News Sunday, said an ad by the Democratic presidential nominee and Illinois senator criticizing McCain for not being e-mail savvy was unfair.
“His war injuries keep him from being able to use a keyboard. He can’t type. You know, it’s like saying he can’t do jumping jacks,” Rove said of the Arizona senator and former U.S. prisoner of war in Vietnam.
But pressed by the program’s host to find fault on both sides, Rove said the Republican presidential nominee was equally guilty.
“McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test,” Rove said.
The Obama campaign seized on the comments, which it felt validated growing criticism that McCain’s operation had turned increasingly negative.
“In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove — the man who held the previous record — said McCain’s ads have gone too far,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.
Rove said both campaigns were making a mistake by pushing the envelope with their assaults.
“They don’t need to attack each other in this way,” he said. “They have legitimate points to make about each other.”
Words to live by as the 2008 campaign enters the home stretch?
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage
Photo credit: Fred Prouser/Reuters (Karl Rove at a panel discussion in Beverly Hills, California on July 14, 2008)
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I see both camps do negative ads. Just look at the pair blogers from Obama, they are every where.
I am a senior citizen and I take offense to what Obama continue to imply that old people are incompetent, useless!
- Posted by konaJust to illustrate Michele’s comment, blind people with middle-class incomes use computers routinely now. Acquiring new skills is precisely what McCain is asking from the American workforce at risk of losing their jobs. Computers are also one of the best ways to address government “inefficiencies”. What happened to leading by example?
- Posted by FrancoisOh come on!! Msot people that use the computer and email don’t type with more than a couple fingers anyway. McCain is just old and behind the times.
I suppose he can’t even use the web because he can’t use a mouse? What a lame excuse.
Rove is just trying to make people think that Obama has also gone too far in his ads - but he hasn’t!!
McSame has got a record for the number of lies… and Obama has zero lies.
- Posted by Davehttp://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ruli ngs/pants-fire/
i have a niece that is a paraplegic that uses a computer on a daily basis. she uses a joystick to operate her wheelchair. there is no comparison to the disability she has to the disability that john mccain has. you cannot tell me that john mccains disabiliy prevents him from using a keyboard or a mouse……….. karl rove really is the master of spin….
- Posted by jeffWe must remember that Mr. Rove is an advisor to the McCain/Palin people. His many disgracful practices in the past are being repeated, Mr. Rove will set thing up then say someone else did it.
It’s most dishearting to see outright lies being issued ny the McCain people. Certainly they must discuss the actual issues before election.
I think Ms Palin will reach her match during the first VP debate, after that Mr. McCain will just fade away.
It seems Mr. McCain has made a 180 degree change in his words, willing to sell his first born for the position on President. Such a shame for a once fine man.
- Posted by GaryFunny how Obama’s spoksman proves Rove’s point about both camps going too far with his comment about the “sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history”. Comments like that lead me to believe his spokesman must have not been paying attention in his history classes.
- Posted by DanThe fact that McCain does not use a keyboard is true and McCain’s war injuries are not pertinent in this instance or in any qualification for being a successful president. Furthermore, McCain’s ads are lies and distortions and clear to all logical entities much worse than Obama’s. Where is the John McCain I knew and would have voted for 6 months ago? He is hiding in the likes of Carl Rove’s pocket.
- Posted by MikeRove should be in jail. He will not appear before congress because he is above the law and the constitution just as the Bush administration still operates today.
I’m trying to figure out who is interested in Rove’s opinion. His comments on McCain or Obama are much like getting Charlie Manson’s comment on the new OJ trail, who cares?
- Posted by Alexander FrostAnyone with two brain cells would be insulted by McCain’s commercials if they thought they were aimed at them and if anything, they are alienating voters who are undecided. I know they think they are being clever, twisting half truths or outright lying, but the only people they have outsmarted so far, is themselves. Having been slickered for the the last two elections, I think the American voters are probably going to be a little harder to fool this time, by either party.
Do Americans, Republican or Democrat, really still care what Karl Rove thinks?
- Posted by Brian WoodwardThe McCain camp started the sleaze slinging and now they are crying fowl that they got a dose of what they had coming to them. Sounds like the class bully that finally gets the stuffing kicked out of him.
we have tens of thousands of people about to lose their jobs in NY as our financial industry, once the envy of the world, finds its way going down the toilet. And yet..no one mentions that the Republicans consistently fought against regulation so that these fiascoes wouldn’t happen. Now, the big guys responsible for these messes want OUR money to bail them out. So they can collect their golden parachutes. I don’t mind shoring up our financial industry, because I know we can rebuild it better than ever…but not if we do the same thing over and over again.
We can do better…we need to do better. Go-Bama!
- Posted by soccer mamaNow that McSame has levied his nasty ads Karl is fearful of similar adds from Obama? It’s still the same old you can’t do what we do syndrome. We’re above it all, Sure thing Karl whatever you want we’ll just do what you say, after all your the one who brought us the WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!!! So we can be sure you only have the good of the nation at heart?
Spare us the spin… Go directly to jail, no get out of jail free cards.Valerie thanks you for her early retirement. The under cover CIA operatives who’s work you thus undermined are so appreciative for your efforts at furthering the collapse of the US intelligence agency. But with the NSA spying on Americans who needs under cover agents in the field of foreign countries—great work Karl.
- Posted by yakmonMr. Rove:
What crap. Even my 3 year old grandson who cannot even read can use a computer mouse to click on an icon to start a game or pull up an email account.
My 82 year old mother has arthritis and can’t type, but she can talk into the microphone and dictate her emails and watch the computer type them for her.
John McCain is a spoiled rich brat who has never gone shopping except for beer, and HIRES people to do EVERYTHING for him. He has NO concept of the struggle the average person has running the Republican Gauntlet of the past 7 years.
Barack Obama understands and has a proven record of working to help those who NEED help. When McCain’s crowd needs help, they hire a lawyer, an accountant and someone to lobby on their behalf. That is the difference between the two candidates.
And McCain is a hip shooter who will get us into MORE wars, just like Bush has. Obama will look for other solutions before going to war. The people of this country know that and are not fooled by McCain’s lying commercials or Palin’s pretty face.
Have you even noticed she has STOPPED wearing lipstick lately so as not to be confused as a pig by McCain and Obama. Both have used that statement, but only Obama admits it. McCain tries to pretend Obama was referring to Palin — but Obama was simply parroting what he heard McCain say about Hilary Clinton.
Shame on you, John McCain. I used to respect you. NO MORE.
- Posted by Mark ReganLet me get this straight. Did rove really just suggest that he believes campaign attacks need to pass a 100% truth test? It would be difficult to think of someone with less moral authority on the issue…
- Posted by JimKarl is right. The two candidates have chosen to squander record breaking fundraising dollars on idiotic attack ads. There’s no change, there’s no reform. Just a hyper-inflated media frenzy and crazy people trying to rule America and the world. Talk of 3am phone calls, assassinations, cracker nation blues and swine lipstick. What an utter freakshow circus this election is turning out to be. The End must be near.
- Posted by joyMichelle,
How stupid do you think we are? Do you actually think John McCain doesn’t understand computer technology? I don’t think America needs a ‘web-surfer’ in the Whit House… it needs an accomplished man that has faced adversity and one that has solid character above all… and in this race, that’s McCain Palin.
Obama = empty suit. The man has accomplished nothing… other than to prove that he can act on stage with a prepared speach…
- Posted by Brian DreyerRove, the decorated idiot tries to slash mud at Obama’s campaign. He tries to confuse the garbage from McCain camp, his doing, onto the other campaign. He actually belongs in a jail; a coward who would not talk under oath. Why are any News and other Media ever mentioning anything this scoundrel has to say. {His paranoid comment <> Treat him like a treason artist, way beyond just doing con jobs.
- Posted by O.P. NeonOf what possible relevance or significance can it be that John can’t or won’t use a computer? It was a sleazy ad whose only purpose was to try to portray him as a clueless old fogey completely out of touch with modern America. Presidents don’t have time to play around with e-mail and internet surfing,anyway. They have people for that.
- Posted by John hinckleyMr. Rove is right. These political ruffians are out of bounds!
- Posted by gringoWho gives a damn!?! When did Karl Rove become a relevant authority on truth?
- Posted by Jeremy CruzNot being able to type isn’t an excuse for not being computer literate. I know lots and lots of disabled people who can’t type and they use computers all the time. There is an abundance of adaptive equipment available to anyone with injuries such as McCain’s, and God knows the expense of such equipment isn’t one of McCain’s concerns.
On the View, when McCain was attacked for having approved his untruthful and distasteful ads, the first thing he did was defend himself, saying just that, that his ads were a defense against attacks by Obama.
Come on, John, and come on Carl. Just how stupid do you think we are?
- Posted by Michele