Several years ago while I was still living in Chicago I had a really crazy impulse one night during election season – to call one of my arch-liberal family members, just to say hello and establish whether the craziness had left the planet, but also to remind her that I still existed and that in some sense, as a family member, I still loved her and cared about her.

It was a tough decision to make.

Neverthless I went through with the phone call and listened to her tell me how much of a genius Bill Maher was and how evil Karl Rove was. That went on for too long a time, maybe five or six minutes, and then I said to her. “Well, I guess I can understand why you feel that way. I really don’t agree, though. You’ve constructed the Masquerade of Karl Rove into a caricature of itself and your judgment is suffering from it. Do you know what Karl Rove really is? He’s a big Nerd.”

Karl Rove is, basically a big Nerd who really cares about the little details of numbers in very targeted election races all across the country in a way that basically nobody except Karl Rove would ever have the persistence to do. He’s also become quite a good writer over at the WSJ and I find all of his columns to be very reserved, insightful and almost overwhelmingly – yes – a little bit bland. He crunches the numbers and he pores over them. He collects all of his acidic juices and eats those numbers up and regurgitates them, which is probably closer to how his liberal enemies see him – as some kind of electoral insect. But basically he’s just a big Nerd and I’m glad we have him on our side.

He’s the kind of guy who was transformed by the lurid imagination of Democrats into an almost demonic figure. Really, most of what he did was to crunch numbers and give his best take on those numbers after a lot of experience with the numbers. If you’re going to hate him, you should hate every really good actuary, not to mention any statistician at any decent university in this country.

I don’t think I’m that nuts. Karl Rove is really one of the best people we have on our side of the Ditch and despite all the anti-Establishment propaganda against him, I wouldn’t want to try and match him face-to-face in contest of electoral numbers prowess. He’s an encyclopedia of that information and it’s because he’s spent his life studying it. He’s a true devotee and a true savant of the numbers.

There isn’t anyone in that respect who is better than he is, or maybe ever will be.

By the way, is — Gotham. It wasn’t created specifically for the Obama campaign, but it was elevated to an almost ludicrous level of prominence by their adoption of it and you can see it everywhere now.

“Graphic designer Brian Collins noted that Gotham was the “linchpin” to Obama’s entire campaign imagery.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_(typeface)

I see long lists of numbers, big tables of figures, electoral districts, a few big mathematical signs, several crossouts, a couple of large areas filled with “???” and a website address, with a photo of the candidate about 1/20th the size of the poster right there in the middle. In black and white and with a lot of Sharpie crossouts in several different colors.

This was the Obama Campaign’s prime mover:

http://resistthepop.wordpress.com/

http://resistthepop.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/obama_hope_poster.jpeg

It was an emotional appeal to artists right from the beginning and Karl Rove couldn’t *ever* pull that off, except maybe in disguise, as a totally different person.

I’d still rather Karl Rove be on my side when I ask a question about such-and-such a district and where Whateverville resides in it in the middle of Whateverstate. He’s invaluable. You could fill the Jeopardy screen with electoral district questions and Rove would probably get every one of them right. But he’s never going to be “cool” or “hip”.

And I’m probably a less “purely” Conservative than Erick but not by much, oddly enough. Redstate should be a fascinating place for people to read what people think, it should always be interesting, and I try to keep my end of the bargain up in terms of keeping it interesting because I really care about the people who started it and I agree with them (for the most part). I tick people off sometimes, but in terms of who I vote for, and what I support for this country, I’m on our side and I’m very conservative. Except every once in a while, and then I’m still really on our side but I think people need to understand something they’re missing. Everyone has blind spots.

You can rest assured that I believe very wholeheartedly in the links in my sig. line. I believe in lower taxes, I believe in allowing American business to grow, and I believe in less regulation and red tape. I believe in American Exceptionalism and I believe very strongly that this country has been a force for Good in the world. I’m not the student of the Federalist Papers that Gingrich is, to be sure, but I know that the Constitution is our best and most essential guide for the future – because the future is unhinged and chaotic without it. It’s our anchor. We need the Constitution more than ever.

I’m not running for public office nor do I plan to. I want to run a successful business here in America and employ people gainfully, treat them very well, and give them a reason to get up in the morning and believe they have a future.

Sometimes you have to fight a shape shifter with a shape shifter. Someone equally as skilled at manipulating people.

I could. I don’t think he’s a crazy person. I think his wife is doing good things at least in terms of her messages about obesity and healthy eating. She’s trying to help people. His kids, I’m sure, are wonderful. He’s a center-left President with a Europeanist VP and he’s trying to move the country in the direction he was elected to move it in. He brought a lot of people into the government and tried to imbue them with the sense of seriousness it brings. He has never been an unserious man in office, I think. He’s made decisions and I think he’s gotten some bad advice.

I think he’s been rash on a couple of occasions and I think he’s damaged himself more than anything else by being rash. The Fast and Furious thing and then this latest theatricality with the Florida case is really unnerving – and I have to think he knows it’s unnecessary and probably destructive. I can’t say for sure, though.

But if I decided to tour the White House and I happened to meet him when he came to greet visitors unexpectedly would I scream and yell at him? Absolutely not. He’s still our President. Most of what he’s done are things I’ve expected him to do, except for things that I think are really, truthfully deeply unhelpful and even when I disagree with him (which I do almost every day) he’s still our President.

I know he’s working hard and I respect him and I deeply respect the office he holds. He has his prerogatives and his views, and after all, he was elected, not me. I’m just not going to vote for him in this election cycle, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure more people don’t vote for him, either.

But I do have a core belief in his civility and I know I have a core belief in mine.