Rating: 
Summary: Rove is scary
Review: After reading the book "Boy Genuis" I have came to the conclusion that it is a bad thing that John Kerry is leading in the polls. Rove will go dirty fast because he simply hates to lose. HE has transformed Texas into what he hopes America will become, an unabashed Republican stronghold. His pandering to the religous right by being the liason between the White House and those groups is so laughable considering Rove himself has said religion is unimportant to him. That may be true except on one day every four years, on that day, his role as the Republican party's greatest asset comes in handy. Rove knows that economic conservatives and moral conservatives despise what they "perceive" the Democratic Party stands for: big government, tax hikes, loose morals, diversity, and weak foreign policy. Karl Rove has exploited these perceptions with a "whatever it takes" mentality. He blew through the streets of Austin leaving only like minded conservatives in his wake. He has been in Washington for almost four years, four more and the divide and hate in this country will reach a fevered pitch. Lets hope Nixon and Lee Atwater won't be proud this election cycle. After reading this book, I'm sure they will though.
Rating:
Summary: Rove is scary
Review: After reading the book "Boy Genuis" I have came to the conclusion that it is a bad thing that John Kerry is leading in the polls. Rove will go dirty fast because he simply hates to lose. HE has transformed Texas into what he hopes America will become, an unabashed Republican stronghold. His pandering to the religous right by being the liason between the White House and those groups is so laughable considering Rove himself has said religion is unimportant to him. That may be true except on one day every four years, on that day, his role as the Republican party's greatest asset comes in handy. Rove knows that economic conservatives and moral conservatives despise what they "perceive" the Democratic Party stands for: big government, tax hikes, loose morals, diversity, and weak foreign policy. Karl Rove has exploited these perceptions with a "whatever it takes" mentality. He blew through the streets of Austin leaving only like minded conservatives in his wake. He has been in Washington for almost four years, four more and the divide and hate in this country will reach a fevered pitch. Lets hope Nixon and Lee Atwater won't be proud this election cycle. After reading this book, I'm sure they will though.
Rating:
Summary: The Best and The Scummiest
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Best and The Scummiest
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but more about George Bush than Karl Rove . . .
Review: 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 . . . .
Rating: 
Summary: Best political book I've read this year
Review: I found "Boy Genius" to be insightful, compelling and humorous. The book is written by three journalists, two of whom followed Karl Rove throughout his days in Texas and a third who writes for the National Journal. The outline of the book is a chronological history of the campaigns and administrations Rove has managed or contributed to. The book is full of interesting antecdotes that really give you an idea of what Rove is all about and his motivations for the directions in which he takes his advisees. Most importantly, after reading this book I would describe Karl Rove as a winner, which makes this an interesting read no matter what your politics. Two things the potential reader should know are 1) the majority of the book is about Texas politics and Rove's work in that state, and 2) the authors demonstrate definite left leanings in their storytelling, although it mainly shows through in their humor and when they point out the irony that George W. Bush never fails to provide for them. These caveats are fairly minor, I think most political readers will enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent primer
Review: I found "Boy Genius" to be insightful, compelling and humorous. The book is written by three journalists, two of whom followed Karl Rove throughout his days in Texas and a third who writes for the National Journal. The outline of the book is a chronological history of the campaigns and administrations Rove has managed or contributed to. The book is full of interesting antecdotes that really give you an idea of what Rove is all about and his motivations for the directions in which he takes his advisees. Most importantly, after reading this book I would describe Karl Rove as a winner, which makes this an interesting read no matter what your politics. Two things the potential reader should know are 1) the majority of the book is about Texas politics and Rove's work in that state, and 2) the authors demonstrate definite left leanings in their storytelling, although it mainly shows through in their humor and when they point out the irony that George W. Bush never fails to provide for them. These caveats are fairly minor, I think most political readers will enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Best political book I've read this year
Review: I found "Boy Genius" to be insightful, compelling and humorous. The book is written by three journalists, two of whom followed Karl Rove throughout his days in Texas and a third who writes for the National Journal. The outline of the book is a chronological history of the campaigns and administrations Rove has managed or contributed to. The book is full of interesting antecdotes that really give you an idea of what Rove is all about and his motivations for the directions in which he takes his advisees. Most importantly, after reading this book I would describe Karl Rove as a winner, which makes this an interesting read no matter what your politics. Two things the potential reader should know are 1) the majority of the book is about Texas politics and Rove's work in that state, and 2) the authors demonstrate definite left leanings in their storytelling, although it mainly shows through in their humor and when they point out the irony that George W. Bush never fails to provide for them. These caveats are fairly minor, I think most political readers will enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Poor insight and got sidetracked
Review: It started off great with an excellent history of how Karl Rove got mad from losing, a great motivator, and how he never gave up which is the true lesson from this book. I agree there were potshots at the republicans about what I'd expect from a talk show. The discussion on the 2000 election fiasco was disappointing. The authors prefaced the chapter with stating that karen and karl just stood by during the recount. That's gotta be ... C'mon, his point man on being presidential simply took a vacation? Please. That was a silent admission as to the authors inability to fill-in the gaps. I got Karl's motivations and experiences but after that the book simply dragged-on reporting what I got from glances at the news. Should have made it 50 pages smaller and $... cheaper. I've started reading Bush's Brain, hopefully it will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Swinging from the Left
Review: More than anything this book is a recent (past 20 years) history of Texas politics where Karl Rove practiced and honed his craft. The authors perspective definitely comes from the left and enjoy Bush-bashing whenever the oportunity presents itself. I don't know where the reviewer below is coming from (other than California where they still can't understand why the rest of the country votes differently from them). I was hoping for more insight into the 2000 Presidential campaign, but was disappointed. Anyone who watches the news regularly would get no additional information.
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