Rove: Obama Campaign Looking Desperate

Carl Rove

By Andra Varin

  Former Bush adviser Karl Rove says president Barack Obama’s re-election bid has had a rough month that suggests the president’s campaigning skills are waning.

“In 2008, team Obama ran a first-rate campaign. They made relatively few unforced errors and capitalized on openings. Things look very different this time,” Rove wrote in an opinion piece Wednesday for The Wall Street Journal.

He said Obama, who formally launched his re-election campaign earlier this month, has had to contend with “lowlights” including disappointing job numbers for the month of April.

Rove said Obama had also tried to capitalize on the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death without acknowledging the Navy SEALs who actually carried out the dangerous raid on the terror kingpin’s compound.

“The whole thing came across as ungracious and egocentric,” he wrote in the WSJ.

And Rove said Obama had been pushed into declaring his support for gay marriage earlier than planned in what seems to be a blatant bid to woo young voters and gay donors.

“Mr. Obama may have difficulty leading and governing but has been considered an effective campaigner. Events in May are starting to call that into question,” Rove said.