The resignation of Karl Rove will be seen in many quarters as the end of George W. Bush’s administration. With 18 months to go before the next president takes office, the sudden air of finality is a measure of the man’s influence and reputation.

Mr Rove has been Mr Bush’s partner in politics since the president’s Texas days, and Mr Bush himself called Mr Rove “The Architect” after the Republicans captured the White House in 2000. In power, Mr Rove continued in his role of most trusted policy adviser and chief political strategist, helping to secure victory in the 2002 mid-term elections and to defeat John Kerry in 2004. Only as the wheels came off the administration in its second term, and the Republicans went down to defeat in last year’s congressional elections, did Mr Rove’s aura of tactical infallibility begin to fade – and even then more slowly than the president’s dismal poll ratings had long seemed to warrant.