Rove Critical Of Hillary Clinton, But Has No Comment On Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) _ White House political adviser Karl Rove stepped up his attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday, saying voters' strong negative opinions about her

Sunday, August 19th 2007, 2:20 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ White House political adviser Karl Rove stepped up his attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday, saying voters' strong negative opinions about her will be difficult to overcome.

``She enters the general election campaign with the highest negatives of any candidate in the history of the Gallup poll,'' the outgoing Bush aide said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''

``It just says people have made an opinion about her. It's hard to change opinions once you've been a high-profile person in the public eye, as she has for 16 or 17 years.''

Asked if there was a desire by the GOP for Clinton to be the Democratic nominee, he ducked the question.

``It's going to be what it's going to be. The Democrats are going to choose the Democratic nominee and the Republicans are going to choose the Republican nominee,'' he said.

Rove, President Bush's longtime political guru and the mastermind behind Bush's races for the White House, announced on Monday that he was quitting the administration at the end of the month to return to Texas and spend more time with his family.

On the show, Rove also attacked a recent political advertisement in which Clinton says struggling families and U.S. troops are ``invisible'' to Bush.

``It's laughable that this president does not have a strong relationship with the military and military families,'' he said.

Asked for his opinions on another Democratic front-runner, Sen. Barack Obama, Rove demurred.

``I've said enough,'' he said.