The Hill News

Conservative strategist Karl Rove commended President Obama on Sunday for what he described as his "courageous" stance on the Afghanistan war and for policies to improve the nation's education system.

"Absolutely there's things that I think he has done well," Rove said in an interview on "Face the Nation."

He assessed as "very positive" Obama's education efforts, including "insisting upon standards and…taking on the idea of pay-for-performance with teachers."

Rove also described Obama's policies in Afghanistan as brave.

 

"I think he made a courageous decision in Afghanistan, much against the hard-left base of his party, but the right decision," he said. 

He said that doesn't mean that he agrees "100 percent" with Obama's Afghanistan stances. 

"I think he has shown too much interest in making that July target a hard date for withdrawal," he said. "And I think that would be a mistake."

He also commended Obama's posture toward Iraq as a continuation of former President Bush's, since Obama has "not engaged in a precipitous withdrawal."