The Wall Street Journal-20080205-Maybe the -New Rules of Politics- Will Help

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Maybe the 'New Rules of Politics' Will Help

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Regarding Karl Rove's "The New Rules of Politics" (Jan. 31): Mr. Rove likely misses the irony of his own op-ed piece. Americans increasingly discount mass advertising precisely because we prefer real information to crafted messages and, in retrospect, particularly the manipulated messages he often helped create. Relying on personal exposure to candidates and information from our friends (aka trusted social networks) is not new -- that's how we Americans have made our decisions for generations. We simply, inexplicably, paused for a while.

Robert S. Brown

New York

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Mr. Rove is very interesting on the new rules of politics. Love him or hate him, he has keen observations about the changes in political campaigns. I disagree, however, with his assertion that the Republican debates are somehow more serious and high-minded than the Democratic debates. I find the debate in both parties to be shallow, focused on the slogan or the sound bite rather than fleshing out a real idea, and moderated by someone who plainly goads and motivates this sort of "discussion" for the purpose of increased ad revenues to the network.

I also observe that most candidates think that in order to win votes, they need to know precisely how to fix every problem that faces the country, and that solution must be different than that of their competitors. This is a fallacy, and isn't a realistic way to campaign, nor a realistic way that the public should be evaluating candidates. We should be asking the question of each candidate: When faced with a problem, what process did you use to fix it? What mixture of idealism, pragmatism, and cooperation did you use to solve the problem? What did you learn from that? What process will you use as the president to approach and solve problems? As president, who will you surround yourself with such that you have the greatest chance of success? I believe it is this sort of openness and humanity that will win votes and inspire confidence.

Daniel Westfahl

Sammamish, Wash.