Thursday, November 08, 2012

If This IS How Team Romney Ran The Campaign, THIS Would Not Have Bode Well For The United States

This could end up being a vulgar rant. I do not want it to be. But I warn you ahead of time.
As the fog of the results of this past Tuesday's presidential election lifts, a rather deeply disturbing aspect of the Romney campaign is not coming out.
We were told over and over again that the Republicans were going to win the ground game in all the swing states. That we had advantages that the Democrats did not. Yada, yada, yada.
One of those "advantages" was dubbed ORCA.
It was supposed to change the face of the election and help Mitt Romney become the 45th president of the United States.
But, in the hands of Republican "strategists", of course they turned this into a disaster.
In this account by Jack Ekdahl, there were problems from the start. It was promoted to the volunteers in "rah-rah" sort of way. Re: Amway. Any questions that were asked about drawbacks, not answered. And this is very important. This was not a coordinated effort with the actual Republican party but from Team Romney.
A huge mistake there.
Read Mr. Ekdahl's account of how badly things were done to get an idea of two election cycles being ran by, to be blunt, morons.
There was the haphazard Sen. John "F--- You" McCain campaign, that pretty much imploded before a single vote was cast on election day in 2008. And if this is true, and it pains me to write this, a campaign that had a significant tool to reach voters oversold and thus blew the age-old theory of direct, personal contact. One-on-one with voters.
Oh, and Team Obama?
They did that.
And the reality is that the Democrats have the built in organization to do that with their alliances.
Folks, we Republicans can not run campaigns and win elections if we do not seriously stand as an alternative to the other side. And we must not throw out the baby with the bath water.
I blame a lot of this on someone thinking that they are the next Karl Rove.
Yes, he was the architect of George W. Bush's wins in 2000, and 2004.
But that was then.
The Dems of course studied all that he did in 2004 to win this election.
And basically, it was to get the minimal amount of electoral votes to the majority of 270 or plus.
And of course the Dems did better once they got their hands on it.
Say what you want about it being a nasty campaign. It was. But while the public face of that campaign was there for the world to see, they were busy doing  a little modern stuff and classic retail one-on-one contacts. And, they looked for new voters. They were smart enough to realize that there was a let down in the historic 2008 race.
Bottom line.
Team Obama played smart and used everything at its disposal.
Team Romney played, well lets just say that they played and lost.
I credit Team Obama for doing what should always be done by both parties. Never ceding any place.
Sure, this time they did, but wait because they are going to try to open the field in 2016 because they will have to.
Once again, because of downright ineptitude, the Republicans foolishly already gave up ground before the primary season.
We can not hope to win elections if we keep letting California, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin stay Blue.
At least Republicans are competitive in Michagan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But at the presidential level, it is like Lucy Van Pelt pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.
Here is some advice for the next big thing in the GOP.
One, chuck these worthless consultants. They have no clue. Elections need to be fought everywhere and anywhere. Starting from a negative, well it means we narrow on the margins rather than the nation as a whole.
Two, candidates must be at ease talking about basic conservative ideas. They must be able to move the debate. Being defensive or brushing it aside gets you Mitt Romney. And the list is rather long.
You know, California was pretty Democratic when a guy named Reagan ran for governor in 1966. Most Republicans thought that he did not have a chance to even win the nomination. But he did and because he was clear and totally comfortable talking about conservatism, showing a contrast to then Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown, the current governor's dad, he won.
It is not all about the bells and whistles, but practicing the time-honored tradition of constant retail politics.
Dems get it and GOPers do not.

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