Rove leaving White House

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove deserves as much credit for spoiling George W. Bush's presidency as he does for creating it — which is to say he had a lot to do with both.

The strategist's political genius helped make Bush president.

His arrogance helped make Bush a lame duck.

"Rove is the model for all future presidential advisers — disciplined, smart and personally tight with the commander in chief. With that power comes all of the negative baggage when policy and governing failures erupt out of control," said Republican consultant Scott Reed. "He has kept remarkably cool as the GOP has spiraled out of control the last 10 months."

Reed was pointing to the 2006 midterm elections that cost Republicans control of Congress and destroyed any chance that Rove would achieve his driving ambition — create a governing coalition that would outlast the Bush presidency.

That goal was on Rove's horizon in 2000, when he helped Bush overcome long odds to defeat a sitting vice president. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won Florida and the majority of the electoral votes when the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to end the state's recount.

In the first summer of the presidency, Rove's polling showed that Bush was adrift politically — that is until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks galvanized the nation. It was Rove's idea to use 9/11 to sharpen the differences between Republicans and Democrats on national security, a hard-knuckled strategy that helped Republican gain seats in the 2002 elections despite a history of midterm losses by a president's party.

Rove stuck to his script in the 2004 re-election campaign, using the latest technologies to target and communicate with Republican-leaning voters who might otherwise stay home on Election Day or consider backing Democrats.

Bush, a disciplined candidate with a clear vision for his presidency, defeated Democrat John Kerry, a weak candidate with a fractious campaign.

In the days after the 2004 election, Rove laid claim to a durable Republican majority — comparing the Bush-Kerry race to the elections of 1800, 1860, 1896 and 1932 when presidents leading during eras of great transition created new, lasting coalitions. Rove hoped to use Bush's policies on education, immigration, health care and Social Security to draw traditionally Democratic voters into the Republican fold.

Having already persuaded Congress to approve new education standards and expand the availability of health-savings accounts, Bush heeded Rove's advice and gambled second-term political capital on a plan to partially privatize Social Security.