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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Obama’s ad about McCain not being able to use the computer isn’t a question of his age. It is pointing out that McCain is not in touch with the American people in this computer age.
Many disabled and older people are computer savvy. I have a friend who is legally blind and he uses a computer just fine. He isn’t attacking all people who are not so computer literate but he is just attacking McCain and his inability to be on the same level as more Americans.
I definitely think that McCain’s ads are much more offensive.
- Posted by NicholeOh Karl Rove…
Michele makes a very good point. STEPHEN HAWKINGS anyone?
Face it McCain, you just can’t teach an old dog news tricks.
- Posted by ChrisKarl Rove belongs in Jail. His opinion means nothing to me. He is not an American, but a perverter of our sacred democracy.
- Posted by Miko KrauseShut up Karl Rove. Crawl back down into your brimstone lair until next election. McCain’s ads don’t pass the 5% truth test.
At the same time, when the devil can be made to admit that someone is more evil than him, we shouldn’t vote for that person, right?
- Posted by Bryan GachaKarl Rove….the man makes stuff up for a living. He is probably the one who made the ad he’s saying went too far. He’s the one who avoided jail and Scooter got the short straw for a little bit.Karl Rove. Expert trouble-maker.
- Posted by shaamexWell Mccain’s camp has produced some big old lies to try to influence the email generation of computer users (50-70 yr old) who have shown they can be manipulated by the “Obama used a Koran to be sworn in” chain mails.
We can only hope these tactics don’t work, or the country will be totally ruined when president Mccain shows his complete lack of economic sense. Remember when Ron Paul asked Mccain about the plunge protection team, and Mccain had no idea what it was doing, or even that it existed?
Perhaps Mccain should have “googled” a few subjects to try to fill in the large gaps in his knowledge about the really important things that will need to be worked on after the eight year Bush fiasco!
- Posted by Teddyoc do you think it’s the worst campaign ever because your candidate is going to lose? That’s another spin..Carl would be proud. To call Obama an empty suit indicates exactly what type of person many people will be in November…sore losers. Obama is the only sane choice.
- Posted by Paul RafaelEither way, we’re going to get an empty suit that is going to sell us all down the river.
Worst Election Ever.
- Posted by ocPathetic. Politicians are not grown-ups. It’s like high school kids running for student council and calling each other names. Our economy is in the toilet, almost beyond repair, TELL US WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO TO FIX IT!!!! I don’t care to hear about hockey moms, lipstick, and how much Cindy McCain’s outfit cost. Talk to me about what you will do if I vote for you. I don’t care about Palin’s daughter or family for that matter. I want to know what she brings to the table. And don’t tell me she’s a pitbull. That doesn’t tell me a thing about her. Tell me what Biden brings to the table. Tell me what YOUR plan is to fix what the past 8 years have taken, and without any regard to the people of this country, flushed away. Fix this mess and tell me how you plan to do it. Enough of this childish nonsense. Act like adults.
- Posted by MarkInstead of referring to Palin by name, just use the term GOP. The GOP embraces the same greed and stupidity that she does. The more that people see the difference between Obama and the GOP, the more likely it is that Barack’s authenticity will get a chance to shine through.
- Posted by Joe DullyWhat utter crap. If Stephen Hawking can use a computer, John McCain can too.
- Posted by DinnSo, Obama directly responds to Karl’s comments on negative campaigning by repeating the same asinine comments about McCain’s “sleazy” attacks, while also knocking Karl? Tommy Vietor (and by proxy, Barack) are so incompetent on this front, it’s embarrassing.
Computer literacy isn’t needed when you have other people to tell you the news and communications you have waiting for you. And don’t make jokes about how “detached” McCain is about it; don’t pretend Obama or any other politician doesn’t have multiple staffers doing that work for them.
- Posted by Luke LWow, and I was beginning to think that Rove had lied so much that he could not even tell the truth. Of course, it does look like had to be pushed to concede that McCain ads had lied, of which they have done extensively.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMtvz hUJmkDwVPsjJ0vhp-MDl1-gD934RHCG0
- Posted by purerichardhttp://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/ mccain-palin_distorts_our_finding.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/13/p alin.iraq/index.html
Comments welcome: http://whenelephantsfly.blogspot.com
First, come on - John McCain is physically capable of using a computer. I actually knew a computer science major in school who was blind! Granted if you are among the countless veterans of the Iraq war who returned home without limbs, then perhaps you can make a case for not having computer skills.
Second - you have to realize that for a person like Karl Rove to even hint that McCain has stepped over the line in negativity, you know that McCain has engaged in some serious negative campaigning.
I hope and pray that the American people start to realize that McCain is engaged in this level of negativity to skirt away from core issues like the economy or his plan to make the middle class pay more taxes while McCain and his rich cronies get absurd tax breaks (and so his wife can afford to buy yet another pair of $300,000 earings while most Americans continue to struggle to keep up with their mortgage, fuel their car, and pay for health care.
Comments welcome: http://whenelephantsfly.blogspot.com
- Posted by When Elephants FlyI am sorry to say but the proof is out there that Obama did vote for sex ed for kids 5 and up all the ads are true. The View or the Spew is just a bunch of women whos careers have gone bust and have nothing else to do but be a bunch of ninnies. Democrats are just upset that McCain/Palin is in the lead. Because Republicans have class, education and money. Not to mention moral values and we work hard. To have gay marrages and abortions, sex education for kids? I own a buisiness and Obama wants to tax me more because I worked hard and sacrificed to build it and make a great living to give hand outs to lazy, yes lazy americans who dont want to work hard and always have an excuse why they cant get ahead. No thanks. Any politician who all of a sudden is proud to be an American overnight does not deserve the white house or my tax dollars.
- Posted by JeniI agree Michele, Republicans like Rove wrote the book on lies and B.S. Whenever they’re totally busted they try to implicate a Democrat. Whats worse is the press plays right along with this framing technique. I hope Obama keeps calling them liars until you can stick a fork in Rove to see if he’s done. If big media weren’t such biased republicans, they be asking rove when is he going to answer his subpoena to Congress.
- Posted by hoosiermacActually Karl Rove was on Fox and said that McCain’s ads have gone too far…..but some of Obama’s ads didd’nt pass the 100% truth scale……but he was mainly talking about McCain talking about Obama’s tax plan, healthcare plan and what he did in the senate…
Obama wanted to teach an age appropriate version of sex-ed for toddlers to know the difference of sexual advances and “bad touch” also that obamas tax plan will raise taxes for those making over $250,000/year……
McCains tax plan has been called horrible by independent economists because he is borrowing money to cut taxes for income and for his healthcare plan
- Posted by Oregon4Obamawhy has Rove suddenly come out from under the bridge he lives below? He must be concerned that his proxy isn’t doing a good enough job. It is just another sign of just how close McCain and Bush have become.
I suspect that they realize that if McCain wins he will have completely alienated Congress with his lies. It will make Bush’s last term look really productive.
- Posted by CataplasmWhy is Rove only concerned about negative attacks when a few are lobbed by Obama? You can bet if Obama expressed regret and vowed to stop, Rove would be right there with McCain cooking up a host of new sleazy attacks against Obama. Rove is just trying to appeal to Obama’s better nature so McCain can resume full force. Rove has no shame. Why is he trying to invent some phony version now?
- Posted by NnaI find every political article filled with partisan commentary. Its much worst than the presidential ads. Why do we expect anything better from our candidates when the citizens attack the politicians incessantly?
Karl Rove was being unexpectedly fair minded. The John McCain comment was just one example of many which he could have pulled from either one of the parties. Why are you picking on it?
Quite frankly, I don’t care if my President can email. He has other people who can and shouldn’t be wasting his time on the computer.
- Posted by GHalley