Boy Genius by Carl M, Cannon

Boy Genius by Carl M, Cannon, Lou Dubose and Juan Reid is a good read about Karl Rove. Karl Rove is a republican political constant. He is most famously known for being the force behind George Bush and George Bush Jr campaigns. Bush Sr. actually gave him the nickname Boy Genius because he is a genius at getting his candidates elected, but sometimes bush would call him blossom. It depended on the mood he was in. The book goes into details about the behind the scenes of what happens within the campaigns.

Karl Rove is a very intelligent college drop out. He went to college, but he dropped out to get into politics. He was a rising star, so when he dropped out he moved to Illinois. After he dropped out of college, He was given a position to organize young Republicans for Ralph Smith at the University of Illinois. He was good with the Young Republicans because he knew how to get young people motivated in politics. Then, he moved in 1971 to Washington where he was hired as a paid executive director of the College Republicans.

He was born on Christmas Day 1950. He grew up in Sparks, Nevada. Rove was a republican every since he was a young boy. The irony is that he came from humble beginnings. His father was geologist which caused them to move around a lot. His mother once lived in a run down hut.

Rove is a very low key guy. He is the mastermind behind the scene. He does what ever he has to do to get his candidate elected. He puts a lot of energy in to his candidate’s campaign. His first candidate being independent was Clement. Clement was running for governor of Texas in 1978. He was running against the very favorable attorney general, John Hill. The race was supposed to be a losing race for Clements because in 1978 Texas was majority a Democratic state. John Hill is a democratic, so it appeared he had the race. However, there was a situation that came up in a Christian Boy’s home. The boys living in the home were being beat with paddles made of pine. They were being force to kneel down on hardwood floors, and into solidity confinement while listening to many hours of the pastor’s recordings sermons.

He filed a civil suite against the boys’ home, and it was closed down. Hill got a lot of backlash from that even though he had to. He was just doing his job, and of course Rove used this as ammunition to fuel his army. When the pastor Lester Roloff, who was in charge of the home, got on the radio and bashed Rove it was over. Clement won by a margin of 18,000 --Victory. Not to long after, Clement jumped on Roloff side of the claim.

Working with George Bush J., seem to be Rove biggest challenge. He was selling Bush to the Republicans to get him the nomination. Early on, Bush’s availability to money was essential and very helpful to his campaign and Rove knew that. For instances, In less than three weeks Bush announced his candidacy for president his campaign had already raised 36.4 million. Since fund raising wasn’t a big issue, he focused on buying up websites like bushsucks.com to prevent embarrassment and he was flying around every state trying to set up headquarters. His strategy was to get sell bush to the voters as Robin Hood to as the book says it to “upend the status quote” (133). Next, he had to get full support for his candidate. . This was hard to accomplish because he was up against a really big opponent