Karl Rove’s Mission Accomplished (Paul Krugman)

[swag]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/karl-roves-mission-accomplished/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

. . .

Remember how Rove and others were supposed to raise vast sums from billionaires and corporations, then totally saturate the country with GOP messaging, drowning out Obama’s message? Well, they certainly raised a lot of money, and ran a lot of ads. But in terms of actual number of ads the battle has been, if anything, an Obama advantage. And while we don’t know what will happen on Tuesday, state-level polls suggest both that Obama is a strong favorite and, much more surprising, that Democrats are overwhelmingly favored to hold the Senate in a year when the number of seats at risk was supposed to spell doom.

Some of this reflects the simple fact that money can’t help all that much when you have a lousy message. But it also looks as if the money was surprisingly badly spent. What happened?

Well, what if we’ve been misunderstanding Rove? We’ve been seeing him as a man dedicated to helping angry right-wing billionaires take over America. But maybe he’s best thought of instead as an entrepreneur in the business of selling his services to angry right-wing billionaires, who believe that he can help them take over America. It’s not the same thing.

And while Rove the crusader is looking — provisionally, of course, until the votes are in — like a failure, Rove the businessman has just had an amazing, banner year.

. . . more

[DarleenMB]

1. The number of ads

they've been running next door in Montana has been horrendous. For every Tester ad they are running 2 or 3. It's bs.

[jsr]

2. Great times for TV and radio station owners

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, swag.

[vinny9698]

4. Working politicaly for the right wing 1% has become a cottage industry

Dick Armey from freedom works makes $500,000 per year for being a tea party community organizer. And the list goes on.