15 August 2007

The Atlantic on Karl Rove

Just days before Karl Rove announced his resignation as the Deputy White House Chief of Staff, my new issue of The Atlantic arrived in the mail. The cover story? "Lessons of a Failed Presidency: Why Karl Rove Couldn't Deliver" (subscription required).

Here's one of many tid-bits from the cover story that put the entire Bush presidency into perspective:
Hurricane Katrina clearly changed the public perception of Bush's presidency. Less examined is the role Rove played in the defining moment of the administration's response: when Air Force One flew over Louisiana and Bush gazed down from on high at the wreckage without ordering his plane down. Bush advisers Matthew Dowd and Dan Bartlett wanted the president on the ground immediately, one Bush official told me, but were overruled by Rove for reasons that are still unclear: "Karl did not want the plane to land in Louisiana."
And the already leaky damn then came crashing down.