Rove is like an evil chess master, you only see the brillance of his move long after he makes it. And folks, I think he did great with the Barack "Hussein" Obama response. He acccomplished all of the following things in a single statement:

1) He repeated "Hussein" even though he's telling everyone not to use it. It's like saying, "don't think about purple bunnies" to someone. It intentionally creates the opposite effect.

2) It makes the RNC appear to be on the same post-partisan level as Obama is. This will help sway independents.

3) It serves as a "get out of racism charge" free card. By appearing not to be racist, it lets them fight off at least one over racist attack.

4) It lets them use subtle racist attacks and hide behind their magnanimous defense of Obama. They can play good cop and bad cop.