When President George W. Bush lobbed a barb at Karl Rove, his chief political strategist, at his press conference, “I was obviously working harder on this campaign than he was,” there were notable “oohs” from the audience at the public slapdown.

Republican analysts on Thursday said the jibe was unfair. The election was an indictment of Mr Bush’s Iraq policy, not political tactics. “Nobody thinks that Karl is in charge of the occupation of Iraq,” said Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, who has close ties to Mr Rove. “I haven’t heard any complaints about him. In a conference call with conservative groups no one faulted the turnout effort.”