A PRESS CONFERENCE. I mean we're talking a press conference! Say it like Allen Iverson did about "practice."

Seriously, they held a press conference for Karl Rove. Think about that. They held a press conference for the resignation of a person who was never elected or even vetted by Congress—and who refuses to allow Congress to question him about possibly breaking the law.

It shows how ludicrous the election process has become over the past thirty years. Master manipulators run our country and most of us are OK with it.

That isn't a swipe just at the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration. Clinton had James Carville and George H. W. Bush had the late Lee Atwater. However, neither Atwater nor Carville got a press conference and hugs.

Rove, of course, is the worst—or the most brilliant—because he took the political handling process to a new level. Ask John McCain about the planted story of his illegitimate black baby in South Carolina. Smears like that bring results. Imagine that in 2004 a legitimate war hero is demeaned while an apparent draft-dodger is revered as a hero. Those efforts, we've found out, engineered the election of the most inarticulate and intellectually lacking president—maybe of all time.

Simply put, Rove mesmerized three groups to get W. into the White House. In short, he knew where to find the money and the dummies.

The first group was the Jesus heads. These are the people who will vote for you if you say, "Jesus is my savior." If you were to follow that sentence with "and I like to kill mass numbers of people," it probably wouldn't matter.

The second group is the dumb poor. These are people convinced by Mr. Rove to think they're really wealthy—even though their jobs are either in jeopardy or connected to a lower salary.

The third group is corporate America. They helped finance the Rove offensive through campaign donations. In return, Rove got them access to the White House and laws that would benefit them financially. Think energy and military industries.

A good book that offers similar insights is Joe Klein's Politics Lost: From RFK to W: How Politicians Have Become Less Courageous and More Interested in Keeping Power than in Doing What's Right for America The title needs no further explanation. It's a good read.

It's people like Karl Rove that have diminished the everyday person from politics. Granted, the everyday person has to take some responsibility for their apathy or surface knowledge of what their leaders are doing. But in defense of most of us, clearly we don't have the time to really understand and question the camouflaged distortions from our politicians. Why do you think 40% of the people in 2004 believed that Iraq was directly involved with 9/11?

The media can take its blame, too. But like the American public, we're just doing what we're supposed to do. The media fills up the airwaves with whatever the Administration and Congress offers—whether it's newsworthy or not. It fills time on the 24-hour news slot. And soon, if not already, it pays dividends in campaign dollars converted into paid air time.

Will this ever change? The media part? No. But the part about the American public? Yes. In fact, I think we're seeing it now. A new CBS poll says 46% believe our presence in Iraq is creating and not stopping terrorists, compared to 18%. That's a far cry from 2004.

Certainly the Internet is helping. The fact that Barack Obama is leading the fundraising game by gathering small online donations from everyday people is a definite sign of change. I'm more inclined to believe Obama will make decisions based on fact rather than the financial ledger from his campaign books. That's not an endorsement. I just wish others would follow him on this matter.

So, yes there is progress that is slowly tilting away from corporate America back to the individual. It's still a long way to go. This trend, I think and hope, will continue as more baby-boomers become more politically active in their older yet still active years and they tire of the myopic interests of corporate America and the politicians they try to buy.

Still, whoever the next occupant of the White House is there will be another Karl Rove lurking in the darkness. I can only imagine the hoopla for that press conference.

For more insights into the media coverage of politics, try my book TRUTH: The No BS Guide To Navigating A Media-Bias World.