No, this is not Karl Rove's Big Secret Evil Plan.

[Occam Bandage]

I've now seen four different posters claiming that we should stop attacking Harriet Quayle, because "this is part of Rove's secret plan." No. No, it is not. Karl Rove is all about message. His genius is twofold: he's good at organizing volunteers (which is totally irrelevant here) and he's mastered the technique of refuge in audacity. A Rove campaign is all about loudly and brazenly accusing your opponent of your own obvious weaknesses. It's about messages that are so utterly and falsely simplistic that it's difficult to so much as acknowledge the ignored nuances in the allotted 30-second reply time. It's about loud, inane, least-common-denominator messages.

A Karl Rove campaign does not include, nor has it ever included, the scandals of a self-destructing VP nominee dominating the news during the Republican convention. It does not include an unvetted candidate who throws the candidate's message into confusion. It does not include a campaign scrambling on the defensive during what should be a celebration of the 2008 GOP message. Can't we just accept that sometimes, the Republicans can be even dumber than we are?