E Pluribus Unum

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

I have no idea why Rove is leaving. But here are some guesses:

1. His work is finished
   Bush is a lame duck with no credibility with the American public. No one believes him (and by extension, Rove) anymore. Why fight to the finish, especially when more lucrative pursuits beckon?

2. He's following the money
   If Keith Richards can get $7 million for his memoirs, so can Rove. And down the road he can make $250 thou per speech. He's set for life. Why not get going while the going is good?

3. He's avoiding the frog-march
   It's only a matter of time before the authorities close in. Cut a deal now and quietly slip away into the witness protection program.

4. He's joining another campaign
   I hear John McCain has some openings. OK, maybe not. And no matter who he'd join, it would be hard for the campaign story not to be about The Boy Genius.

5. Leave now or get shot in the face.
   It was only a matter of time before dick Cheney got his revenge for Rove ratting out Libby.
   

UPDATE: I'm generally not a big fan of instant analysis, but I think Rove has been around long enough that we can draw some conclusions about his performance as Bush's Brain. First up, Simon Rosenberg:

Karl Rove was the 'architect' of one of the worst governments in American history, and the one who engineered the end of modern conservatism, one of the most successful ideological movements in modern world history.

Next, Kevin Drum:

History will judge Rove a colossal failure, a man who never understood how to govern and, for all his immense knowledge of polls and politics, never really understood the times he lived in. It was 9/11 that both made and broke the Bush presidency, not some kind of mystical McKinley-esque realignment. Rove was blind to that, and blind to the way Bush should have governed after 9/11. His one-track mind, in which every problem is solved by wielding the biggest, nastiest partisan club you can lift, just couldn't adapt. It's fitting that he insisted on making even his final act as calculatedly partisan as he could, announcing his resignation not through the White House press office, but in an interview with the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Sic transit, Karl.