This is getting to be just too weird.
Quoth the raven: "There is no front-runner who has entered the primary season with negatives as high as she has in the history of modern polling....
"She’s going into the general election with, depending on what poll you look at, in the high 40s on the negative side and just below that on the positive side. And there’s nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position."
That, as you probably know, was Karl Rove speaking to Rush Limbaugh Wednesday, assessing Hillary Clinton's campaign. And he went farther -- much farther. She is "fatally flawed"; she "lack[s] the vision to be president"; she is "weak" on national security; she is unsupportive of our troops; and she opposes the "Patriot Act, domestic surveillance programs and other antiterrorism measures."
Not surprisingly, Hillary was elated by all of Karl's negative attention, since drawing the wrath of the Bush administration is, these days, an absolutely priceless political gift: "I feel so lucky that I am now giving them such heartburn." she said with glee while campaigning in Iowa.
But wait, Karl knows that. Karl understands that assaulting Hillary means abetting Hillary. He never opens his mouth without some calculated, strategic purpose, and in this case the purpose is vastly obvious: He's actively trying to help the Clinton campaign.
The question, of course, is why. Barack Obama's people are speculating "that Mr. Rove is trying to help Mrs. Clinton win the Democratic presidential nomination because, this thinking goes, she would be easier to beat than Mr. Obama." Other speculations abound, such as the right-wing attack machine is already geared up for Hillary and by God it's Hillary it shall have.
But here's my working theory. It sounds a bit conspiratorial and perhaps even borders on the daft -- but this is the Bush administration we're talking about, so pretty much anything imaginable falls into the realm of the possible.
Karl Rove isn't merely trying to help Hillary Clinton get nominated. Karl Rove wants Hillary Clinton elected.
Think about it. Do you think this Republican administration wants to be succeeded by another Republican administration? I, for one, think not. It wants a Democrat in the White House for at least the next four years, because the coming poor schmuck of a president -- no matter who he or she is -- naturally will be blamed for everything the Bush administration has so dismally launched into motion.
The next president will be accused of "losing" Iraq. The next president will be embroiled in the irremediable problems of the increasingly unstable Middle East. The next president will be forced to raise taxes, given the general fiscal nightmare he or she will inherit. The next president could very likely find him- or herself in the midst of the Great Depression II. The next president will be that much closer to the pit of the Baby Boomer crisis, with all its Social Security and Medicare funding problems.
Karl knows all this, and Karl wouldn't wish this mess on a fellow Republican. So he's praying for a Democratic president and another Democratic Congress in 2008, both of whom will suffer the electorate's immense anger and dissatisfaction in short order, to be followed in 2012 or 2016 by an overwhelming Republican congressional majority and Bush Administration Redux.
Karl Rove is still a young man, and his dream of a permanent Republican majority is still doable, in his eyes, but only if Democratic patsies are there to take the heat for a while.
As I said, perhaps it's a bit daft, but paradoxically it's also the only logical explanation I can come up with.