Andy, those are fair enough points, but I think the fundamental political problem of the Iraq war was the difficulty encountered in its prosecution. A shrewder political or communications strategy might have helped at the margins, but only at the margins. Rove was not Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, ambassador to Iraq or a general. He was not responsible for our on-the-ground troubles in Iraq, which can be attributed both to the state of Iraqi society and mistakes in our occupation and counter-insurgency campaign.

I don’t know how you define “some kind of political genius.” But he won elections in 2000 and 2004 in very difficult circumstances. The campaign that Rove and Ken Mehlman ran in 2004, in particular, was brilliant. As unhappy as you are with how Bush has run the war, I bet you’d be even unhappier with John Kerry.