Karl Rove shouldn't be worried, he should be proud. All the strategies that he developed and used have been applied in this election, for good or for ill. The McCain folks, sadly, have been the ones inclined to use the dirty tricks, but when it's all over, I am sure we'll find out how the Obama folks used Rove's number crunching strategies to leverage red states into blue ones.

Even at that, I am not really sure about which side Rove has been playing for--I can't help but remember that only a few weeks back he began affably reminding everyone about McCain's mean streak, his impulsiveness, his stubbornness and his "character" issues.

Then there was the domino-like way that a number of prominent conservative columnists flipped over to endorsing Obama. And of course, if there was an endorsement that could deflate McCain's perceived strength on defense and Iraq, it would be Colin Powell. And when Scott McClellan, who was, after all, Bush's spokesman, endorses Obama.

Is this mere coincidence, or is it the hand of a master at work?