I attended Rove’s speech at AEI this morning, and I must confess to a different reaction from the Prowler’s. I found it underwhelming. Like Quin, I have a lot to say, so I’ll split it into two posts. First, on style.

His willingness to take questions certainly demonstrated fight and focus for the months ahead. And his best qualities were on display: an uncanny ability to match poll and policy numbers with any critic. He was also quite engaging with the press corps.

His speech focused on economic policy. The White House could use someone banging the drum of the country’s economic success and the President’s role in that. While this unfortunately helps feed the perception that the federal government is the economic hero or villain (as opposed to the market), the White House must combat its critics.

Next post: on substance.