Perhaps a better question is who will be this generation's Atwater?
Posted on 11/24/2012 10:47:25 AM PST by Bratch
Speaking at The David Horowitz Freedom Center's "Restoration Weekend" in Florida on November 16, Pat Caddell indicted what he called the Republican "consultant-lobbyist-establishment" complex for losing a presidential campaign in 2012 President Barack Obama had no business winning.
“No presidential campaign should be run by consultants,” Caddell said. “They should be run by people who are committed to the candidate and not into making big money.”
Caddell said “Republicans never attempted to put a frame around the national election” because “the people who run the messaging in the Republican party and their consultants refused to do it.”
Caddell, the former Jimmy Carter adviser who consulted on the "Hope and the Change" movie that profiled disaffected Obama 2008 voters who were not going to vote for him in 2012, warned Republicans that the consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex may threaten to take the party into oblivion if not marginalized.
The Romney campaign, Caddell said, was driven be establishment consultants and was a failure of mechanics and message.
“But most of all, it was a failure of imagination,” Caddell said. ““It was the single worst campaign in modern history of a challenger who had a chance to win ... and that’s the truth and nothing can take away from that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Perhaps a better question is who will be this generation's Atwater?
I miss Atwater. He was a genius.
I miss Atwater. He was a genius.
What did Atwater have to do with electing Ronald Reagan?
Lots of truth here.
Unless things significantly change within the GOP power structure, they will repeat 2012 with Jeb Bush.
My perception could be wrong, but I don’t think Romney ran THAT bad of a campaign.
Obama lost lots of support from 2008, Romney gained some. It was not enough. Obama still had a huge minority vote.
But I didn’t see a terrible Romney campaign. He was pretty aggressive, he didn’t back down, he romped in the first debate, held his own in the others.
If I want to Monday morning quarterback, I’d say that lull before the GOP convention, they needed to go more negative on Obama as Obama was “defining” Romney to many people in the BG states.
They don’t fight back, that’s why they lose
Clinton???
Obama???
Talk about warts....sheesh, what targets to go after and GOP wants to play nice
As for mechanics, I repeat from another thread, the largest radio station in Cleveland was unable to secure a morning drive-time interview with even one republican spokesperson, much less Ryan or Romney, with the largest listening audience in the key state of Ohio waiting to hear. By contrast, the DNC was calling them every day with a new person available to be interviewed.
Karl Rove wanted Romney as the nominee. Then Rove stuttered and stammered his boring statistics all over TV until even Republicans could not stand to listen to him. Rove sure did not help Romney.
Bill Whittle had a very excellent observation about the culture.
Combine it with the culture involved in http://vimeo.com/52009124
and you probably have the complete answer.
People need to be aware! We spent years fighting communism and then America unwittingly elects one!
It will take years to unwind the GLOBAL damage of the marxo muslim who slithered his way (with the aid of the knowing democrats) into OUR white house .
AMEN!
As I look back, I think the major problem was that ALL REPUBLICANS thought that Barry Benghazi was toast so they didn’t need to campaign. Here in Arizona, ‘RAT ads were at least 100 to one. The ads were nothing but solid mud and feces and the goobers in the GOP put up no response or defense against these “ads”. With the exception of Flake’s senatorial campaign, nobody responded to the mudslinging against them. I would not have even known who was running to be my representative had not Ann Kirkpatrick spent a small fortune on mudslinging ads against him. One after another, 24/7.
The incredibly dense electorate and the propaganda from the MSM is the reason republicans lost.
I agree. The Washington insiders are blind to America. They sit in Washington Bars after hours and read the Washington Post daily. They have lost reality.
Sorry , acknowledging the communism/marxism will allow you to identify and solve maybe almost half of the problem, another large component is his islamic heritage and capacity to lie.
Marxo-muslim.
Everything that is antithetical to America sits in the White House today.
Take the time, watch the vid.
We got beat. The Democrats had something to do with it, just as the Yankees had something to do with Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. Our consultants weren’t the problem.
To the extent there was something significantly wrong with our side, it was the candidates. Romney was the only major figure in the race once Perry fizzled, and Romney simply could not exploit the No. 1 issue of Obamacare because of his support of an almost identical single-payer medical insurance plan in Massachusetts.
If our nominee has to run away from our best issue, we gotta problem.
I miss Atwater. He was a genius.
AMEN!
Again, what did Atwater have to do with electing Ronald Reagan?
ping
Great 15-min video link here:
Bill Whittle on Believing in Our Conservative Philosophy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2962415/posts
The primary process needs to be changed. I got no vote in that. Primary elections should be held on one day for every state. The winner of the most votes, wins the Primary. That way, we all get a choice. It’s ridiculous the way it is now.
“Romney was the only major figure in the race once Perry fizzled”
Who won more states, Romney in 2008, or Santorum in 2012?
I agree with your perception. But I still never hear anyone put the blame where I think it belongs: on THE MEDIA. And I’m sick of everyone scolding “don’t whine about the media bias.”
Until the media does it’s job, with unbiased/balanced reporting, the GOP will never win the low-information voters. Sadly, never.
Romney could have devastated Obama on so many things, but chose not to for some reason. He didn’t know how to fight the Chicago thugs.
I've said in two other threads now that the recent failure of the Republican party is a failure of marketing more than anything else. They need to learn how to market the party 24/7/365, just like the MSM does for Democrats, and they need to market around and over the constant drumbeat of negativity against Republicans by the MSM and the Democrats. Given how biased the MSM is against Republicans, and how much that is worth to Democrats, if the MSM was actually just neutral in their reporting, Republicans would poll much higher.
The other issue is that when the Republicans do market, it's only for three weeks, and only for individual candidates, not for the party or their ideas, like the MSM does for Democrats. When you have weak messaging, during that brief window, as Mr. Caddell notes, it's a defeat for Republicans and a catastrophe for the country.
So there's the issue out in the open. How to actually accomplish that marketing is the challenge that I haven't quite figured out yet.
I agree. RINO Jeb Bush vs Hillary. Hillary in a landslide. Now its women’s turn for warfare against white males.
Are the cheaters in swing states the fault of the “Republican Establishment”?
When you have a dense electorate and when you're up against media propaganda you can't use the same flat footed consultants to run a traditional campaign.
You have to speak the truth and energize your grass roots support.
Right on. Worse than the Undocumented victor.
And Extortion-Care continued as “Replacers”
Life stealers, thiefs.
I wish there were a rule that said whenever a campaign consultant loses, they are barred from getting any new contracts for X number of years. This bs of allowing two and three times losers to continue to feed at the campaign cash trough has to end.
Give me one example where the "Republican Establishment" addresses voting fraud.
I think that they are afraid to. They'd rather collect their paychecks and lose rather than address the issue and risk being labeled a racist.
The houseplant-intellect idiots that decide elections in this nation won't be able to tell the difference between Jeb Bush and George Bush. Or George H.W. Bush. They will think he is running for a fourth term.
Since Ronald Reagan(who was disliked and used by the Republican establishment by the way) the Republicans have refused to nominate a single candidate who cared about average Americans or could relate to average Americans. Republicans have let the media and the Washington elites destroy any good candidates and have run one bad wishy washy establishment type after another. GHW Bush, Dole, GW Bush, McCain and Romney have all cared only about the Washington establishment and have neglected Reagan Democrats and the others who provided the landslides of the 1980’s. Pat Buchanan, Sarah Palin and others who related to average Americans were back-stabbed and thrown out of the party.
Pat Caddell managed to get Jimmy Carter the Democrat nomination and the presidency. Though Pat might regret it today he got an incompetent elected. It took four years for people to figure it out. Pat Caddell understands how to win elections.
His point about Republicans treating donors as dupes is particularly insightful. The Republican establishment tries to get money from people they don't like and have no intention helping in any way. And still people are dumb enough to donate.
I’ve voted exclusively my entire voting life for GOP candidates, never deviating a single time. But it’s clear to me that the Party, which I was drawn to during the Reagan era, is just downright defective in all areas. It makes me nauseated, what’s become of the Republican Party.
I’m left champing at the bit for a conservative third-party option. Preferably a “Tea Party” spearheaded by Palin.
After the 1980 election, Atwater went to Washington and became an aide in the Ronald Reagan administration, working under political director Ed Rollins. In 1984, Rollins managed Reagan's re-election campaign, and Atwater became the campaign's deputy director and political director. Rollins tells several Atwater stories in his 1996 book Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms.[6] He states that Atwater ran a dirty tricks operation against vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, including publicizing the fact that Ferraro's parents had been indicted on numbers running in the 1940s. Rollins also described Atwater as "ruthless," "Ollie North in civilian clothes," and someone who "just had to drive in one more stake."
During his years in Washington, Atwater became aligned with Vice President George H.W. Bush, who chose Atwater to manage his 1988 presidential campaign.
Sorry! “Romney gained some.” Romney got fewer votes than McCain in 2008. I wish I had voted for Ron Paul! Never again!
The incredibly dense electorate and the propaganda from the MSM is the reason republicans lost.
Add in the “ freebies” and people wanting “ yo dolls” and we have the answer
Should have read
” yo Dolla”
I predict Caddell will love this:
www.gone2012book.com
BINGO!
Pat fussed about this from early on and frequently. He was all but tearing out his beard he was SO frustrated with the Repubs. Unfortunately, he was proved right. Pat is one of the very few Dems that I have any respect for .... and that increased when he ‘went off’ on the presstitutes (i.e.media) & was so upset his voice was shaking. Pat’s becoming an extinct breed - a Dem who is not a Leftist loon.
Nowadays everything has to be the worst ever. If you don't overemphasize and exaggerate your message doesn't get through.
Romney and his campaign were definitely missing something. Just what it was and whether it was something he and his people could have provided and whether that would have been enough to win are all tough questions.
Carry_Okie: Republican 'Consultant-Lobbyist-Establishment' Complex Responsible For Romney Nomination
Sheesh.
Not able to get a Republican to interview...? That’s incredible. I am reading more asnd more about sheer incompetence or maybe it’s just corruption from the Republican establishment -— maybe they just took our money and laid back.
How can we get rid of these greedy, lazy creeps??
Let us not forget that bastard Gary Johnson and his soft Soros money! Anyone check his bank account lately?
Too often, Caddell said the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex ignores anything that could be effective if it does not allow them to profit.
For instance, even though a Frank Luntz focus group found that the “Hope and the Change” movie was the most effective way for Republicans to appeal to independent voters, Caddell accused the Republican “consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex” of not utilizing the film because “that communication didn’t fit” in their conventional plans to make the consultant class wealthy.
I hope the fat puke Rove chokes on the millions he made. Bastard!
The hierarchy in the RNC and their gofer ‘consultants’ have got to go.
They grossly underestimated the power of huge groups of low income/intelligence voters bought and paid for with taxpayer funded Free S*it!
They also underestimated the strength of a media whose sole purpose to to destroy whomever is perceived as a threat. Now (Mia Love, Allen West) and in the future (Marco Rubio).
Through buzz words (’Racist!’, ‘Radical’, ‘Greedy Capitalist’, ‘Bain’ ect) and catch phrases (’War on Women’, ‘Off shore accounts’, etc) ladled and repeated ad infinitum between a news show’s commercial breaks. Creating a perfect stimuli for countless numbers of barely cognizant, Twitter transfused Pavlovian voters.
Not to mention the Dems’ and the left’s proven ability to steal elections. With 141% of voters turning out in St, Lucie, Florida. And several districts in Philadelphia having 100% of the vote going to Obama.
Any chance Caddell would run a Republican campaign?
He’s worried enough about the country, so he might. I don’t think he’d do it if he had to deal with the current lot of bumpkin Repubs & it would have to be a candidate HE believed in.
I find myself in complete agreement with Caddell with regard to the role (and performance) of the Republican consultants.
Steve Schmidt is a particular pain in the butt. If you've been in business for any period of time, you've run across people like Schmidt: the lawyer who's more important than his client, the salesman who is more important than his product, the actor who is more important than his lines.
In short, Steve Schmidt is the asshole who's more important than his alimentary canal.
Pompous and arrogant, he pronounces nonsense as if he was the Oracle of Delphi.
Most Democrat candidates have spent their life in politics. They know how to run a campaign...and the Democrat consultants are effectively cast as technicians -- second-rate hacks working for a first-rate hack.
Most Republican candidates, however, have spent their life in some other walk of life than "career politician". As a consequence, Republican consultants assume a more prominent role in the campaign. In Republican party politics, the second rate hacks are elevated to "consultants" and "experts"
The consultant class should be viewed with real concern by future Republican candidates. Schmidt and his ilk should never be allowed to run another campaign -- unless it's for a Democrat.
Romney is in a crisis of faith. He believed that his god would insure his victory. He has no way to cope with his loss.
Romney was by any standard the wrong man at the wrong time applying for the wrong job for the wrong reasons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
