Rove at FL GOP bash , fondly recalls *his* election night returns

FORT LAUDERDALE — Presidential adviser Karl Rove told an enthusiastic crowd of Broward County Republicans on Friday night that the worst mistake the U.S. could make is to “cut and run” in Iraq.

Without mentioning growing opposition to the war or the record-low popularity in polls of his boss, President Bush, Rove gave a resounding defense of the decision to go to war three years ago, and he blasted Democrats who now consider the war a mistake.
Rove saved his harshest criticism for the man Bush defeated in 2004: Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who voted for the war in Iraq but now supports a deadline for withdrawing American troops in Iraq.

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Rove, who is under investigation in the leak of a CIA operative’s identity, thrilled the partisan audience with behind-the-scenes anecdotes in the West Wing or on Air Force One. He recalled his sophisticated computer program to track returns on election night 2004 that contradicted exit polls showing Bush losing in Florida.

“I’ll never forget. The first county I clicked was Hernando. Then Pasco. And about that time, Jeb called in,” Rove recalled. “I started working my way down the east coast and he said, 'Start with Broward.’ … It was clear, we were running well ahead of where we needed to run, and Jeb said, 'We’re going to win, and we’re going to win big.’ ”

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