W. Mitt Romney's main selling point was supposed to be he was a successful data driven manager. We certainly didn't see that in his campaign. First we have the GOTV project known as ORCA.
The Unmitigated Disaster Known As Project ORCAProject ORCA is a massive undertaking – the Republican Party’s newest, unprecedented and most technologically advanced plan to win the 2012 presidential election.That's the Romney campaign's description. Ace of Spades says:
Pretty much everything in that sentence is false. The "massive undertaking" is true, however. It would take a lot of planning, training and coordination to be done successfully (oh, we'll get to that in a second). This wasn't really the GOP's effort, it was Team Romney's. And perhaps "unprecedented" would fit if we're discussing failure.And what about that "data driven" part? The campaign may have been data driven but they selected bad data from the conservative echo chamber.
Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.Not unlike the Bush administration in the lead up to the Iraq war the Romney campaign was only considering "data" that told them what they wanted to hear. The data the labeled as "liberal bias" turned out to be correct.
Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.
But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.
After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.
"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
Judging from his campaign it would appear that this country dodged a bullet when Romney was defeated.
I got one word:
ReplyDeleteWow.
This was my FB post for the morning after the election.
ReplyDeleteI got up this morning thinking about presidential leadership.
Winston Churchill said the most exhilarating feeling in the world is getting shot at and missed.
Forty-eight hours ago America dodged a bullet.
The more we learn, the more relieved I feel. Lost in the aftermath of Tuesday's election was a story about Romney team workers. Those who worked late that night had to pay their taxi fares personally when they learned their credit cards had already been disabled. That's how Governor Romney deals with subordinates, a vivid contrast with this morning's video of the president coming to tears while thanking some of his supporters.
That last link scares the hell out of me. Spouting lies is one thing. Believing your own lies is another entirely. It is the Iraq War debacle all over again, though at least this time everyone dodged the bullet, and probably the war with Iran they would have bought and sold hook, line and sinker as well.
ReplyDelete