Shortly after Rove left the Bush administration, the Washington lawyer Robert B. Barnett negotiated a series of contracts for Rove that ensured him both a rapid windfall and omnipresence in the election season — as a Fox News commentator, as a columnist for Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, and author of a much-awaited memoir, to be published next year.

Rove.com provides listings of Rove's television appearances and columns, an outlet for Rove to respond to attacks against him in the news media and a place in which he links to articles about himself. "Karl tends to follow what is being said about him, somewhat obsessively I think," said Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman under Bush.

Likewise, Rove's public words are closely scoured for hidden meaning. He recently said on Fox News that McCain's campaign should be doing more to connect Obama to the former executives of the fallen lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The next day, McCain's campaign released an advertisement doing just that.

"Is John McCain's campaign taking political directives on how to handle the economic crisis from Karl Rove?" asked the columnist Sam Stein, writing for The Huffington Post.

Political strategists and analysts note the telltale "Rovian" influences on the McCain campaign, especially since Schmidt was given day-to-day authority in July. The campaign has taken a more aggressive tack against Obama and developed a sharper rapid-response apparatus, said Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist. ("Very Rove," Rollins said.)

Over the summer, the McCain campaign embarked on the classic Rovian strategy of taking an opponent's perceived strength — in the case of Obama, his international popularity and ability to draw big crowds — and tried to turn it into a liability, likening Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

"Karl Rove might not be the architect anymore, but he certainly left a set of blueprints in the room," said Donna Brazile, the Democratic strategist and a friend of Rove's, conveying a mixture of suspicion and admiration.