I'm not going to spend a great deal of time talking about Plamegate - other than to mention the whole ordeal was a media/power whore orchestrated "scandal" intent on taking down the President on nothing more than false charges. I've spent enough time here on that. Rove is hated because he helps Bush succeed, and that is what I want to talk about.
What I do want to talk about is why Karl Rove is proof of George W. Bush's intelligence. I don't know that much about Rove other than everyone who is anyone inside the beltway knows that he has been a major part in the many (often unreported) successes of GWB's political career. And the fact that the President has kept him around this long is a complete contradiction of often leveled charge of Bush's stupidity.
I've spent many years of my professional life in management, and quite a few as a "management consultant". And I've seen many many managers and supervisors in my life succeed and fail. I've had my own ups and downs as well. And this is what I've learned above all else. The mark of a good manager is one that surrounds himself with people who have strengths that he doesn't have.
The axiom has just as much weight for a political executive as it does a private sector manager. Bush knows what he doesn't know, and leans on the people around him to help him manage at 30000 feet, keeping his hand on the pulse of the operation, but relying on those below him to help him through things that aren't his strength.
And that is who Rove - and many others in Bush's administration: people who support him with things that he himself has no particular knowledge or expertise in. And that's why Bush succeeds. The fact that he knows what he doesn't know and leans on the Rove's of his administration; that's what makes GWB, despite what his detractors will tell you, a very smart man.
