Comments on: Beware the smart campaign

By: sultanp

sultanp — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:00:48 +0000

This goes back to the book The Hidden Persuaders from the late 50′s/early 60′s.

Bob Newhart had a great piece about how advertisers would have created an Abraham Lincoln if he didn’t already exist.

The Dems seem to have done exactly this – just like the music industry does market research to find what kind of performer the buyers want, and then go and find someone who exactly fits the bill, thus maximizing sales. [e.g., the survey says buyers want a young blond girl on a guitar - so they go and pick Taylor Swift out of the crowd of 1000s of music-star-wanna-be's].

Obama fits the demographic the Dems want to attract.

By: faraway

faraway — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:51:04 +0000

We need our own Mad Men. And we need them now.

If Priebus embraces this, then he can get another term.

By: txmomof6

txmomof6 — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:11:09 +0000

Didn’t Obama get fewer votes this time than last? So all those social scientists etc. were less effective in raw numbers than whatever the campaign did last time. All they beat was the dynamic of an incumbent up for a second term. Next time there will be an open field on both sides with one party having been in control for 8 years. That will have more effect on the outcome of the race than any social science based microtargeting.

By: Sekhmet

Sekhmet — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:09:34 +0000

They also had five years to perfect this against Romney in particular. NO FRONT RUNNER UNTIL 2015, y’all.

By: Seth Halpern

Seth Halpern — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:07:36 +0000

I'm not convinced that the missing Republican voters were notably low-information voters such that techniques designed for the latter would work on them. I suspect they were high skepticism voters who were probably not terribly motivated by glib, long-distance Republican campaign media targeting, and would probably respond as I generally do to "personalized" emails, ie by not bothering to read them, and pressing "delete" instead. I'm not claiming that such voters are anxious to be physically besieged in their homes by needy politicians, but there is something to be said for the politics of human contact.

By: Wethal

Wethal — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:59:52 +0000

Democracy should not just be about how to persuade people to vote for one candidate over another by any means necessary.

Well, there’s no democracy in Chicago, then. “By any means necessary” is the SOP for the Daley Machine, of which Obama is a creation.

By: Punchenko

Punchenko — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:47:17 +0000

Somebody’s scared to death that the low-information voter strategy will be turned against them.

Caiwyn on November 18, 2012 at 9:59 AM

SOON.

By: Fleuries

Fleuries — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:46:08 +0000

Supermarket sales. Buy now.

I felt like it was more like voting by cellphone for the American Idol, than a somber choice.

By: Punchenko

Punchenko — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:38:58 +0000

You’d think from this that Obama’s geniuses had succeeded in turning out gazillions of, er, grown-up white people, as opposed to just more of the usual suspects. In fact the white grown-ups stayed home. That says more about the personal failures of Republican hopefuls than it does about Team Obama’s superior technical expertise. Could it be that the increasing derogation of old-fashioned press-the-flesh politicking (which in turn might have forced Republican candidates to articulate their views more persuasively and prospective voters to pay closer attention) was the bigger problem? Seth Halpern on November 18, 2012 at 10:05 AM

I agree. The problem is Democrats and their media allies want to bully Republicans into talking to the Democrat base instead of talking to the traditional Republican base.

By: Thomas More

Thomas More — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:35:22 +0000

Beware the smart campaign

I’d beware the static, stupid campaign instead. One that couldn’t beat the worst President since Carter, in economic times that haven’t been this bad since the Great Depression.