At last night's "Opinion Awards" ceremony held by The Week, Ana Marie Cox of Time got into a bit of a conversation with Karl Rove. Taking issue with Rove's contention that negative attacks only work if they reaffirm voters' pre-exisiting beliefs (Rove used Michael Dukakis and the issue of crime as his example), Cox suggested that, just maybe, racism and the bazillion scare ads featuring a rapey-looking picture of Willie Horton might have played some part in damaging Dukakis. Rove countered that "not only were ads not a factor in the crime perception, but that the GOP consciously stayed away from making race a part of the crime issue by filming the Willie Horton ad in blue-and-white, rather than black-and-white." Let's all remember that come fall: If it's blue, it's actually a celebration of our nation's diversity. [Time]