In an article in today's NYT Karl Rove once again got hugely undeserved credit for political acumen.
Let's examine the record. Karl guided the conservative son of a former Republican president to the office of governor of Texas (how hard could that've been?). Then he led him to a popular vote loss in his first run for the presidency. Saved by the Supreme Court, his sage counsel led to plummeting approval ratings.
Saved once again by forces outside his control (see 9/11), he led
George Bush to a narrow 3% reelection victory over a Democratic opponent with the personality of an ash tray in 2004. Some experts believe that sans 9/11 George Bush would have been the one term president we so richly deserved.
Undeterred by the narrow victory, Karl claimed a mandate to privatize Social Security, setting in motion a chain of political disasters leading to massive Republican losses in the 2006 elections. While being vastly overrated as a political guru, Karl was no dummy, promptly deserting ship like the rat he is for lucrative private sector punditry.
Which brings us to the Rove legacy. In just 90 days, Rove acolytes running the John McCain campaign, using time tested Rove tactics, have managed to thoroughly trash one of the iconic political brands of the last 30 years. Anyone who believes that the Happy Warrior of 2000 would be this far behind in the polls today, even in an admittedly disastrous political environment for Republicans, is simply wrong.
 It may be too late to turn this election around but John McCain needs to publicly and harshly fire Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, and the rest of Rove's evil minions, invite the press back to the front of the bus, send Sarah Palin  to the sidelines (maybe she could help out in a phone bank) and start having some fun again. He'll get a lot closer to victory and even possibly salvage some of his savaged reputation.
John C