Rove: I'd Bet Palin Running for President

President Barack Obama set the stage for a “political battle” when he demanded that Congress raise the debt ceiling to avoid U.S. economic default, Karl Rove charged on “Fox News Sunday.”

“He waited until it was a Republican House and tried to jam them, insisting on a clean debt ceiling,” said the former deputy chief of staff for President Bush.

Rove questioned Obama’s tactics, pointing out the president has enjoyed a Democratic Congress for more than two-thirds of his administration.

“But instead, he said he wanted the Republicans to have ownership in the deficit,” Rove said. “I love it. The Republicans passed a budget, and the Democrats in the Senate haven’t. The Republicans passed a slew of job-creating measures, and the Democrats in the Senate haven’t. The president now sits here and lectures us about how we need to take action. He has yet to put pen to paper and issue a jobs plan or a deficit-reduction plan in the last nine months.”

Rove faced off with former Obama White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, who openly insulted Rove for the Bush administration’s handling of the economy, the war and the stock market as television host Bret Baier tried to regain control of the show.

When asked whether Sarah Palin will run for president, Rove said he’d bet on it.

“This schedule she’s got next week in Iowa, it looks like that of a candidate, not a celebrity,” he said. “You can only tease so many times in the political process, and I think she’s getting to the end of that.”