The president's victory appeared to validate Rove's approach.

Rove comes across as the dorky prankster from junior high who now has the last laugh, along with an office in the West Wing. He has called himself a "nerd." On Halloween night he donned camouflage gear and a fur hat with flaps, mocking Kerry's pre-election goose-hunting expedition.

On Wednesday morning, as Bush was about to hold his first post-election news conference, CNN correspondent John King was reporting live from the White House. "Even some Republicans in the final weeks of the campaign were questioning Karl Rove's strategy," said King, unaware that Rove had just sat down behind him.

As King continued his analysis, Rove rose ceremoniously from his chair and flashed a big grin.

Suddenly noticing, King said, "See, Karl Rove, is he proud as a peacock?"

A political marriage between Bush and Rove began in Texas in the late 1980s and landed them in the White House in 2001. Rove took over Hillary Rodham Clinton's West Wing office.

He had helped persuade Bush to run for Texas governor and laid the groundwork for his successful 1994 campaign, crafting a conservative message, one that appealed to, among others, the religious wing of the party.

The two men first met in the early 1970s when Rove was a staffer in the Republican National Committee and Bush's father was chairman and would ask Rove to deliver car keys to his son.

The president has two nicknames for Rove, depending on the day — "Boy Genius" and an unprintable moniker derived from Texas lingo for a flower that sprouts from cow manure. Detractors call him "Bush's Brain," taken from a book and documentary critical both of the president and of Rove.

Rove is a lightning rod, a man Democrats have long tried to tie to nasty campaign tactics. They pointed to him when rumors swirled that Texas Gov. Ann Richards, Bush's opponent in 1994, sought out gays and lesbians for some state appointments, and when stories circulated that Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Bush's primary opponent in 2000, was the father of illegitimate children. Rove has denied both charges.

Most recently, Democrats tried to tie Rove to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that sought to debunk stories of Kerry's valor in Vietnam. Even before the Swift Boat ads hit the nation's TV screens, Kerry went after Rove by name.

"I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had the chance," Kerry said. "I went (to Vietnam). I'm not going listen to them talk to me about patriotism."