Rove Joins Pundits, Thick on the Ground

By Joel Achenbach
There's pundit gridlock at CNN. They've got them in rows, in close-order formations like soldiers fighting a Napoleonic war. You almost have to feel sorry for the ones in the back row, the second tier, like Bill Bennett. Meanwhile there are graphics exploding everywhere, and hanging plexiglass signs, and there may well be a pundit lost in there somewhere between the Georgia and Missouri campaign returns, yelping.

Meanwhile, on Fox, look who's here: Karl Rove. Solo. He's quite the election geek, which I mean in absolutely the best sense of the phrase. He knows his numbers, his delegate allotment procedures. He knows strategy. He thinks McCain shouldn't have watched the Super Bowl in Massachusetts but probably with military folks someplace like Georgia.

Instant review, subject to revision: As a pundit, Rove is a strikingly bland presence on TV. A big vanilla wafer of a man.

Rove sees some promising signs for each of the top three Republicans, and is struck by how many white people are voting for Obama: "If white Democrats in Georgia are voting for Obama, then white Democrats across America may be voting for Obama."