Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jan Reid (Author), Carl M. Cannon (Author) "One morning in Austin in 2000, at a time when Karl Rove was just becoming a national political player, he stood in the airport holding..." (more)
Key Phrases: zooo campaign, last precinct, boy genius, White House, Karl Rove, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The career and canny rise to power of Karl Rove, the man President Bush calls "boy genius" and some Texans call "Bush's brain," gets a thorough rundown in this entertaining political bio by longtime journalists Dubose, Reid and Cannon. In a breezy, critical style, the authors recount Rove's early fascination with politics, his first political "job" (as a teen rally organizer for Utah Senator Wallace F. Bennett's 1968 re-election campaign) and his first big political prank (stealing stationery from an opposing campaign and inviting outsiders to headquarters for "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing"). In 1980, Rove, who'd spent the previous decade in Washington, D.C., moved to Texas, in part to help with Bush pere's first run for president. He saw vast potential for Republicans in Texas, though it had long been Democratic Party stronghold; during the next 20 years, more than any other single person, Rove turned Texas into a "Republican state." He courted conservative Democrats and recruited attractive, little-known candidates; he built disciplined, well-funded campaign organizations; he reached out to wealthy, conservative constituencies; he used negative information, whether true or not, to derail opposing campaigns; he sometimes fielded several candidates to beat an opponent; and he campaigned not just to win but to destroy his challengers. He also nurtured George W. Bush into a formidable force. (He said, "Political hacks like me wait a lifetime for a guy like this to come along.") Early on, Rove played to Bush's strengths, limiting most of his public appearances to small gatherings and reminding him to repeat the simple themes of his campaigns. As the book puts it about his race against Gov. Ann Richards, "the marathoner Bush just kept coming, always on message." Somewhat snide but definitely enlightening (on the cover "Boy" appears under Bush's picture while "Genius" appears under Rove's), this account offers a detailed look at one of the most powerful politicians in the U.S.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"'Boy Genius"' has its virtues. There are some vivid examples of Rove's campaign-trail savoir-faire." -- New York Times Book Review, January 19, 2003.

"Likely to be fresh even to political junkies...the authors offer plenty of...juicy details." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 19, 2003.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586481924
• ISBN-13: 978-1586481926
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #644,657 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best and The Scummiest, February 3, 2004

By	Thomas M. Seay (Palo Alto, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Every human endeavor has its masters. There are leading physicists, writers, teachers, architects, carpenters and chefs.
The demi-monde also has its corp of top pick-pockets, pimps, snitches and flimflammers. It is to this latter list that we can write the name of Karl Rove. His talents add nothing useful to the world; to the contrary, he and his cabal of mayberry machiavellians' efforts are directed toward finding people's weaknesses and exploiting them, tearing down peoples lives and putting any skeletons on public display, so that "their" guy might win. "Boy Genius" depicts the political career of Karl Rove, how he honed his skill and applied them to the benefit of conservative Republicans and especially to George W. Bush.

The authors do give some background information on Rove and briefly describe how he came to embrace right-wing politics.
As a young man, he is described as a "nerd" and one can well imagine that he was the boy who gotten beaten up on the playground at school. But no thorough psychological profiles are hazarded in this work. We learn only that Rove is a rather emotionless person. The authors offer a couple of "Oprah moments" that hint that their subject might harbor some modicum
of humanity. Despite a couple of these excursions into sentimentality, Dubose et al. stick mostly to the political highlights that mark Rove's life. And that is just as well, because we intuit that if we extracted the electoral machinations from this biography, there would be almost nothing left.

But reading this book reveals as much about we Americans and our times as it does about Rove. We would hope to be titilated by some of Rove's underhanded schemes to win elections, but instead find ourselves rather bored with the enterprise. We are used to this sort of dirty dealing and know that both major parties engage in these activities. It's old hat. Karl Rove just happens to be the best and the scummiest at the game that goes on all the time. The victors in political affairs are not those who present the best ideas but rather those who know how to manipulate through the electronic media. We are given in this book an introduction to the Cardinal Richelieu of the Nouveau Regime, Karl Rove.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but more about George Bush than Karl Rove . . ., March 23, 2003

By A Customer

I expected a more insightful, more personal exploration of a genius political consultant -- Karl Rove -- what makes him tick, what motivates his Machiavelli-like agenda, what personal inconsistencies belie his political agenda etc. What I got was more of a "complaint" against the Republicans in general and "W" in particular. The authors seem to be writing from the point of view of sore losers who want to diminish the validity of the Republicans' political victories in Texas and on the national stage by painting Rove as an amoral Machiavelli/Svengali who has maninpulated an entire party (and country) to fit to his whims. As gossip, it's pretty good -- a lot of juicy tidbits and "could be true" explanations. As a study of a political genius, the authors don't really get at the heart of Karl Rove. Yes, he's brilliant. Yes, he's "The Man With The Plan" for the Republican party. Yes, he's sitting pretty right now. But that's all presupposed. We could get that from a New York Times article. The authors don't give us more than that -- nothing to explain or demystify the man behind the mystery. There are very few attempts at a more in-depth analysis. For example, the authors' mention briefly Rove's lack of religious inclination. It is a fascinating point considering Bush's moral compass. Yet, the authors don't really go anywhere with this information. It's left there to dangle in the wind.

Too bad, Rove is such an interesting subject. Maybe someone else will pick up where this book left off . . . .

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent primer, September 12, 2003

By A Customer

This is an excellent primer to the illustrious career of "Bush's Brain" as he is called. Of the two books presently popular ("Bush's Brain" is the other) this is the more balanced and thorough; indeed, it often times seems that the authors of Bush's Brain had used this for their source, and there is very little information in that book that is not in here. Don't bother to read both, if you're just looking for an introduction to the subject. A careful portrait of the crafty man that learned his tricks (and even instructed others in the same) during the time of "Tricky Dick" Nixon himself. Must read if you are at all interested in learning how Bush Jr. got to the oval office and why all the "big money" lined up behind him as miraculously early as it did.