Karl Rove, whose American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS spent hundreds of millions of dollars attacking President Obama’s economic record without avail, has become something of a punching bag for a defeated and embittered Religious Right. Shortly after the election, Gary Bauer faulted Rove for focusing on the economy rather than on abortion rights and marriage equality and radio host Janet Mefferd expressed concern that “we didn’t even talk much about radical Islam.” A few days later, the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios even accused Rove of moderating the GOP’s previous focus on anti-gay policies.

Today, Joel Gilbert, director of the widely distributed anti-Obama movie “Dreams From My Real Father,” joined the pile-on. In an interview with Renew America’s Cliff Kincaid, Gilbert argued that Rove made a fatal mistake by focusing his attacks on the economy rather than on Gilbert’s theory that the president’s real father was communist organizer Frank Marshall Davis. “If Republicans had made Obama’s Marxist agenda and personal background the main issues of the campaign, Americans would have had a much clearer understanding of the choice between American values and Marxism,” Gilbert said.

“I heard complaints from Rove’s conservative donors four weeks in advance of the election,” filmmaker Joel Gilbert told Accuracy in Media. “They kept asking, ‘where is the money being spent?'” The questions intensified after Obama’s victory and the Democrats achieved a larger 55-45 majority in the Senate. Gilbert, who directed the documentary “Dreams from My Real Father,” about Obama’s Marxist roots, notes that Rove had argued to conservative donors that the winning strategy for Republicans was to place ads focusing on the poor economy. Gilbert’s film, which was distributed to millions of voters and argued that Obama’s real biological and ideological father was Communist Party USA propagandist Frank Marshall Davis, attempted to expose Obama’s character and background. But Rove, Romney and Republican leaders did not want to raise these issues. In fact, Rove had argued that calling Obama a socialist or left-winger would backfire. Gilbert argued that Obama was a pop-culture phenomenon with a high “likability” factor and that “Voters perceived Obama as a nice man with an inspiring family story.” The right strategy, he says, was to expose Obama’s Marxist views, the role of Frank Marshall Davis in molding Obama’s political philosophy, and Obama’s questionable statements about his own upbringing. Gilbert says, “If Republicans had made Obama’s Marxist agenda and personal background the main issues of the campaign, Americans would have had a much clearer understanding of the choice between American values and Marxism.”

Gilbert’s film, meanwhile, is on record as having “revolted” focus groups of swing voters and disgusted at least one Florida voter so much that he decided to vote for the president.