The tyranny of the political consultants
We’re talking about the guys who go with gut feelings. The ones that make the calls on polling, TV advertising, direct mail. The old-fashioned ones with decades of experience, who put their finger in the air and shoot from the hip while the Democrats talk to their data nerds and take careful aim. On Tuesday, the Democrats didn’t just pull the trigger — they squeezed it.
The Democrats have the best ground game in the country, and without unions at their call, the GOP is unlikely to catch up. But the Democrats also have the worst ideas in the country, and with Obama at their head, they are unlikely to catch up. So there is room to win again, and it is going to come down to closing the data gap: Knowing what works and what doesn’t; knowing who the voter base is and where they live; knowing how to reach out, touch them, mobilize them. In short, how to move that meter.
Conservative, establishment, whatever. Republicans can get to that tomorrow. The gap in field intelligence, however, cannot wait. These things take time. These things take years. These things take money, and they take resources, and they take a whole lot of smarts.
Blowback
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Oh please, stop the hysteria. This campaign suffered from lousy management. Did the Union give Democrats the edge in Wisconsin earlier this year, when everything was at stake for the unions? Nope! The party needs structural reform. National elections should be coordinated managed by the Republican Party on the national level. We not only suffered badly through cluster-coughs like ORCA but from the fact that we just changed state party leaderships in Florid, Ohio and some other states and had to deal with a bunch of bloody beginners.
Valkyriepundit on November 11, 2012 at 11:56 AM
A conservative platform is a tough sell. No one wants to hear “no more candy.” Even some republicans. Unfortunately it takes a while for the toothache to set in and we will all suffer in the end. Giving people everything they need and want tends to put them in a state of learned helplessness. They want more, they vote for the dems who will give it to them, the economy suffers more, more people on govt. handouts who want to contiue those handouts so they vote dem and the cycle continues.
hopeful on November 11, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Did about 7000 debates during the nomination process ..better known as “digging for gaffs to use later”, help or hurt?
Maybe we should start there.
Mimzey on November 11, 2012 at 1:44 PM