Rove's strategy backfired for the GOP this year. Backfired big time:
...[T]he discussion on the campaign trail suggests just how much of a problem the Iraq war has become for Republicans. It represents a startling contrast with the two national elections beginning in 2002 with the preparation for the Iraq invasion, in which Republicans used the issue to keep Democrats on the run on foreign policy and national security.So, the genius isn't such a genius anymore. You know it's trouble for Rove when GOP strategist trash his ideas:
The development also suggests that what has been a classic strategy of Mr. Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove — to try to turn a weakness into a strength — is not working as well as the White House had hoped, at least so far.
“As the Iraq war gets more unpopular, the environment for Republican candidates erodes,” said Mark Campbell, a Republican strategist who represents several Congressional candidates, including Representative Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, who is fighting for re-election in one of the toughest races."Stay the course" is a self-defeating policy, too.
“Only in an election year this complicated can Republicans be happy that Mark Foley knocked the Iraq war off the front page,” Mr. Campbell said.
A senior strategist familiar with Republican polling who insisted on anonymity to share internal data said that as of midsummer it was clear that “stay the course” was a self-defeating argument.
