Karl Rove Quotes
I have become an adjective. There is something called a Rovian-style of campaigning and it's meant as an insult. One columnist said it consists mainly of throwing mud until it sticks. One prominent blogger described the elements of a textbook Rovian race as fear-based, smear-based and anything goes.
Rove, Karl. Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Threshold Editions, 2010, p. 3.
In 1934 writer Upton Sinclair won the California Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The Republicans spent three times the funds that they had committed against Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election to defeat Sinclair. In particular, they used the first "media consultants" in American political campaigns to comb through all of Sinclair's novels finding dialogue of the villains which were then ascribed to Sinclair in a series of cartoons distributed throughout the state:
Sinclair was a writer who had written about some of the worst scandals in American politics, leaned toward socialized democracy, and decided to run as a reform candidate in California where he lived. He won the Democratic primary easily even though he had no money, political experience, or backing. He terrified the Republicans who ran one of the dirtiest campaigns in American History to defeat him spending more money than in any election up to then including the Presidential elections. (for more details see {619613}) Sinclair lost, but it was close.
His older brother was running for Consul—the highest elected office of the Roman Empire. The Handbook, was his advice to his brother as to how to conduct his campaign.
A few weeks before his election his opponent accused him of sexually molesting a woman two decades earlier.
Describing political advertising of the era:
Sinclair was a writer who had written about some of the worst scandals in American politics, leaned toward socialized democracy, and decided to run as a reform candidate in California where he lived. He won the Democratic primary easily even though he had no money, political experience, or backing. He terrified the Republicans who ran one of the dirtiest campaigns in American History to defeat him spending more money than in any election up to then including the Presidential elections. Rogers, who did not usually support individual politicians, made fun of them all, but he thought that Sinclair would be a good political leader. Sinclair lost, but it was close.
Steinbeck had been approached by Democratic political operatives (not connected with JFK) to write a novel attacking Richard Nixon. See {629629}. “Swift” referred to Jonathan Swift, the great English Satirical Writer who was greatly admired but did not achieve any political objectives.
Karl Christian Rove is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 31, 2007. He has also headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives.
