Karl Rove: Self-Deluded or Consciously Dishonest?

Karl Rove, Wall St. Journal Op-Ed page, today:

Obama's Straw Men

Why does he routinely ascribe to opponents views they don't espouse?

President
Barack Obama reveres Abraham Lincoln. But among the glaring differences
between the two men is that Lincoln offered careful, rigorous,
sustained arguments to advance his aims and, when disagreeing with
political opponents, rarely relied on the lazy rhetorical device of
"straw men." Mr. Obama, on the other hand, routinely ascribes
to others views they don't espouse and says opposition to his policies
is grounded in views no one really advocates. . . .

In
his inaugural address -- which was generally graceful toward the
opposition -- Mr. Obama proclaimed, "We have chosen hope over fear,
unity of purpose over conflict and discord." Which Republican ran
against him on fear, conflict and discord?

Mr. Obama portrays himself as a nonideological, bipartisan voice of reason. Everyone resorts to straw men occasionally, but Mr.
Obama's persistent use of the device is troubling. Continually
characterizing those who disagree with you in a fundamentally dishonest
way can be the sign of a person who lacks confidence in the merits of
his ideas.

It was said that Lincoln crafted his
arguments in "resonant words that enriched the political dialogue of
his age." Mr. Obama's straw men aren't enriching the dialogue of our
age. They are cheapening it.

Associated Press, March 18, 2006:

The President And The Straw Man

'Some Say' But Bush Won't Say Who When Arguing Policy Points

When
the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some
in Washington" believe, as he is doing more often these days, a
rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.

The device usually is code for Democrats or other White House opponents. In describing what they advocate, Mr.
Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance
that bears little resemblance to their actual position.

He typically then says he "strongly disagrees," conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making. . . .

A
specialist in presidential rhetoric, Wayne Fields of Washington
University in St. Louis, views it as "a bizarre kind of double talk"
that abuses the rules of legitimate discussion.

"It's such a
phenomenal hole in the national debate that you can have arguments with
nonexistent people," Fields said. "All politicians try to get away with
this to a certain extent. What's striking here is how much this administration rests on a foundation of this kind of stuff" . . . .

Mr. Bush has caricatured the other side for years, trying to tilt legislative debates in his favor or score election-season points with voters. . . .

Campaigning
for Republican candidates in the 2002 midterm elections, the president
sought to use the congressional debate over a new Homeland Security
Department against Democrats.

He told at least two audiences that some senators opposing him were "not interested in the security of the American people."
In reality, Democrats balked not at creating the department, which Mr.
Bush himself first opposed, but at letting agency workers go without
the usual civil service protections. . . .

Straw men have made more frequent appearances in recent months, often on national security, once Mr. Bush's strong suit with the public but at the center of some of his difficulties today. . . .

Recently defending his decision to allow the National Security Agency to monitor without subpoenas [sic]
the international communications of Americans suspected of terrorist
ties, Mr. Bush has suggested that those who question the program
underestimate the terrorist threat.

"There's some in America who say, 'Well, this can't be true there are still people willing to attack,"' Mr. Bush said during a January visit to the NSA.

The
president has relied on straw men, too, on the topics of taxes and
trade, issues he hopes will work against Democrats in this fall's
congressional elections. . . .

"Some people believe the
answer to this problem is to wall off our economy from the world," he
said this month in India, talking about the migration of U.S. jobs
overseas. "I strongly disagree

Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free."

"There
are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year,
"who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of
health care ... for all people."

Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions.

Karl Rove's entire strategy for the Bush presidency was grounded in straw men accusations. Here's what Bush said in his 2008 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, summing up his entire presidency: "We believe our nation has the right to defend itself -- even if sometimes others disagree."
There, as always, was George Bush, courageously standing against the
"anti-self-defense" movement in the U.S. -- also known as "those who
oppose torture, illegal spying on Americans, invading and occupying
other countries who haven't attacked and couldn't attack us and any
other policies George Bush favored."

By contrast, look at one of
the alleged "straw men" of Obama's prominently cited by Rove: "We have
chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."
Rove objects: "Which Republican ran against him on fear, conflict and
discord?" How about the people who accused him of "pallin' around with Terrorists" or who said:
"Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay - he
wants to meet them without preconditions. Al Qaeda terrorists still
plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America - he's worried that
someone won't read them their rights?" or who accused him of being a "Marxist" and a "Communist" and his wife of being an angry America-hater and who circulated a campaign to convince Americans that he was a secret Muslim and an anti-Semite. One might also want to include Dick Cheney's 2004 warning that electing John Kerry would mean we would be attacked again by Terrorists and his current warnings that Obama is now making a nuclear Terrorist attack more likely, as well as Karl Rove's very own series of campaigns that relied on little other than standard fear-mongering.

When
Karl Rove says these things, does he first delude himself into
believing that he opposes and would not use "straw men" tactics of the
type which, with a straight face, he's self-righteously condemning
today? Or he is fully aware that he spent the last eight years
degrading our discourse with exactly that tactic and is now purposely
projecting what he himself did onto Obama?

Either way, Rove, as
always, is the living and breathing embodiment of the limitless deceit
which our political discourse not only permits but rewards. Just
imagine what it says about our country that Karl Rove -- Karl Rove
-- knows he can sermonize against people who "cheapen" rather
than "enrich" the "dialogue of our age" without suffering any
reputational damage for such side-splitting dishonesty. To the
contrary, other than Matt Drudge, no individual is more adored by the establishment journalists of The Liberal Media. As Gloria Borger of CNN and U.S. News reverently put it: "when Rove speaks, the political class pays attention -- usually with good reason."