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Another Reason Romney Lost: He Had A Full Blown Idiot (Stuart Stevens) Running His Campaign.
Red State ^ | 2/25/2013 | Martin Knight

Posted on 02/26/2013 4:03:57 AM PST by IbJensen

Meaning Romney Was Also An Idiot For Not Noticing ...

Sometime before Election Day, before the debates, people already knew Stuart Stevens and his team were in over their heads. From the utter fiasco of Romney’s convention speech, which he stripped down to a thin gruel of bland forgettable pablum (and of course, stripped of any mention of America’s servicemen and women abroad), throwing aside Bush’s micro-targetting programmed wholesale, allowing his Hollywood aspirations to make him give the prime speaking slot at the RNC to Clint Eastwood (without any vetting) instead of people who would humanize his candidate, I just thought at the time, that Stu Stevens was simply disorganized.

Then, we found out about ORCA, and the fact that Stevens and his team (Moffat, et al.) still thought the system performed well because … “metrics”. Then came the revelation that Stevens had no concept of the idea that what voters tell pollsters is often quite different from what would actually influence them in favor of candidate A or B.

Then we discovered the wide disparity in both quality, quantity and reach of advertising (in Obama’s favor), despite the fact that this was supposed to be where Stevens was going to dominate and make up for months of unanswered attacks – down the home stretch the Obama Campaign and its allies outperformed Romney and every single Conservative SuperPAC on every possible measure; “[Obama] spent less on advertising than Romney and his allies but got far more — in the number of ads broadcast, in visibility in key markets and in targeting critical demographic groups, such as the working class and younger voters in swing states … Romney not only paid more for his ads but also missed crucial opportunities to advertise, for instance during the political conventions and on Spanish-language television …”

When it came to online advertising, the graph to your right tells you the entire story.

Considering the horrendous amount of what was very rightly called campaign malpractice in that WaPo piece, there actually is a viable argument that Mitt Romney could take Stuart Stevens and Co. to court for fraud.

But as they say; never attribute to malice what can just as easily be attributed to abject stupidity.

Top Romney Strategist Stuart Stevens Says Media Not ‘In The Tank’ For President Obama.

Ever since then-Senator Barack Obama first took a lead in the 2008 Democratic primary, the political news media has faced the accusation that they are “in the tank” for the now-second term President Obama. On Sunday morning’s Reliable Sources, the press got a qualified defense from a surprising source: Mitt Romney chief strategist Stuart Stevens. Host Howard Kurtz asked Stevens if ” much of the media is in the tank for Barack Obama,” to which Stevens replied, “In the tank? I would say no.”

“Do you believe, today, that much of the media is in the tank for Barack Obama?” Kurtz asked.

Stevens replied, “It’s not a yes or a no question. In the tank, I would say no. So, yes or no question, I would say no.”

Kurtz pressed the line of questioning several times. “Too sympathetic to the President? How would you put it?” he asked.

“I think after the election, you’ll have a lot tougher questions that will be asked because you’re out of an election environment,” Stevens replied. “I think you’re seeing that this past weekend with this whole golf outing. I think they will be more critical now.”

A surprised Kurtz asked, “You’re saying the press should be finally more critical about the fact that President Obama went golfing with Tiger Woods?”

“The degree to which there is not a choice between him and a Republican candidate makes it easier for them to be tougher on the President,” Stevens replied. “That’s natural.”

In hindsight; there was no way Mitt Romney could have won with the team he assembled, and I am truly flabbergasted that I was so wrong to assume that Romney would bring the same A-game he brought to selecting teams to turn around failing companies to his campaign.

The fact that Stu Stevens and his team do not see and actually never saw the media’s heavy bias in favor of the President during the campaign means there was not, at any point, any path to victory for Mitt Romney. People this blind and lacking in perception would have eventually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory no matter what had gone right; these are the people who quickly advised Mitt Romney to “tone it down” after his excellent performance in the first debate and go into prevent-defense to “appeal to Independents and women.”

Even worse is the fact that these people continue to give themselves high marks for the utter fiasco of a campaign they ran.

Considering what we went through with Steve Schmidt and prior to that, the tragedy that was the Bush White House’s political and communications operation, I’ve had to come to the sad conclusion that right now, when it comes to political operatives, electoral experts, campaign strategists, etc, Democrats get the cream of the crop, while Republicans are stuck with the slimy fetid fungus that feeds on the decaying scum encrusting the bottom of the barrel.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: campaigning; obama; romney; romney20112; stustevens
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Despite making "competence" and "electability" core foundations of his campaign, Romney's campaign also struggled throughout the primaries despite being able to overwhelm his opponents in staff and advertising. He was able to win the nomination because he was the only candidate with the reputation and funding to assemble a large campaign organization before the primaries began.

In the first debate with the current occupier of the White Hut it appeared that the Mittster won hands down; however, in the second debate he sat on his hands and allowed the Harvard whiz to roll over him in a disgraceful exhibition.

There were so many issues that could have been used to tear the halfrican to shreds. Here a totally unknown, no doubt phony American has put four disastrous years of killing this nation behind him and goes on to put America through four more!

Ted Cruz would make an excellent cadidate to run against this 'decaying scum encrusting the bottom of the barrel' as he is younger and probably the most conservative candidate we could find with the ability to fight and not lie down and let America's opponent run over him. As a campaign manager we'd need someone like Greg Gutfeld. (or, if possible, a younger Don Rickles.)

If ever a target needed to be insulted, and debated to the point where he is driven back into the sewer system from whence he came it is this totally phony Bronco Bama!

1 posted on 02/26/2013 4:04:04 AM PST by IbJensen
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To: IbJensen; WXRGina; duffee; onyx; DrewsMum; Tupelo; mstar; jdirt; Vietnam Vet From New Mexico; ...

Mississippi Boy’s Fault ping


2 posted on 02/26/2013 4:13:37 AM PST by WKB ( Remember "Bush Lied and People Died" Now it's "People died and Obama Lied")
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To: IbJensen; WXRGina; duffee; onyx; DrewsMum; Tupelo; mstar; jdirt; Vietnam Vet From New Mexico; ...

Mississippi Boy’s Fault ping


3 posted on 02/26/2013 4:14:39 AM PST by WKB ( Remember "Bush Lied and People Died" Now it's "People died and Obama Lied")
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To: IbJensen

So we are supposed to believe that Romney, a man who achieved such success in business, went out and hired a team of idiots to win?

Either Romney’s financial and business success was a total accident or he tanked himself. No other explanation is logical. Next issue is while so many cling to “Oh he would have been better than Obama!”

Really? Is this article supposed to be some kind of proof of that? Hiring incompetent idiots that destroy a campaign would not instill confidence in any thinking person that the same wouldn’t have happened in his cabinet. Or other policy advisers.

But excuses will continue I’m sure.


4 posted on 02/26/2013 4:21:44 AM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: IbJensen

This is total BS. Romney would have lost no matter who was running the campaign.

The fact is that the GOP ran a candidate who:

Was a privileged kid with no “real world” experiences put against a black thug street fighter. He simply did not know how to fight since his world didn’t have problems like that.

Second, he was a pure blooded RINO of the first magnitude.

Third, he had no idea how the rest of us lived and what was important to us.

Fourth, he was absolutely the wrong man to run. We needed a fighter, not a wimp.


5 posted on 02/26/2013 4:24:21 AM PST by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: IbJensen
This story is supposed to be a DISTRACTION. But it points to the TRUTH.

ZERO was CHOSEN to win the "election". Our overlords wanted it this way.

6 posted on 02/26/2013 4:32:11 AM PST by mountn man (ATTITUDE- The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It.)
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To: DH

I say b.s. to all of the above...we are just outnumbered by the idiots with their hands out in this country. Mitt would have been a fine president but people recoil at the thought of actually having to pull up their britches and going to work.


7 posted on 02/26/2013 4:35:15 AM PST by lilypad
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To: IbJensen

If this were true, wouldn’t he have lost in the primaries?


8 posted on 02/26/2013 4:42:07 AM PST by RPTMS
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To: lilypad

Agree. Mitt would have made a decent president. He lost because of the complete idiots wanting the government to take care of them OR, massive voter fraud, which I think played a major role. The corrupt media and an ill-informed, brainwashed population can be thanked for the fraud that is in the White House.


9 posted on 02/26/2013 4:43:08 AM PST by JudyinCanada
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To: Norm Lenhart

Didn’t his son already say that his father didn’t really want to win? Makes more sense now by hiring a consultant team that didn’t know what it was doing.

FTL!


10 posted on 02/26/2013 4:47:39 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: RPTMS

Not necessarily because, in my opinion and with one exception, he was running against fellow Republicrats.


11 posted on 02/26/2013 4:51:23 AM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: IbJensen

Expecting voters to know what is going on and relying on MSM to do so, and not confronting their blatant bias is just part of why our great loss. While there are examples of fraud which may close up the gap, the gap is too big to blame the loss on fraud ..

.Expecting GOPES to address media bias or Romney to call Obama a congenital liar or even point out that the fact and figures released by the white house were allways questionable is another. Let alone call him a “socialist”..

But the fault lies really in the messaging the Republican campaign came up with.

They violated the first principle, the basic mechanics of campaigning (without going into the sacrosanct”social issues “) which could be defended and are gone into after this opus.

These are the “Bread and Butter Issues” which affect everyones pocketbook. Instead Choking on political correctness parameters or triping over past positions on global warming and Romneycare. Both of which were pocketbook issues and mourned about when the election post mortum was conducted. For these topics were confronting these policies and sections of every “demographic” in the political play book .

The MSM and allowing them to set the agenda ..
Romney ran a ‘Johnny One Note Campaign’. Used a poison dart blow gun when he should have used a cannon loaded with grape shot because he had pleanty of stuff he could fill that cannon barrel with..

Besides failing to hammer away on what will happen when Obama gets returned; The Obama past due 2013/14 Tax Increases. The impact of Obamas gagging energy resources (a socialist construct never branded as such) with policies requiring reliance on intermittent sources wind and solar and that resulted in massive failure and corruption (barely re-mentioned).,restricted use of drilling, and the effective banning use of coal for electrification , and the restrctions on fracking, with the resulting prices doubling or even trippling on everything and where a connection could be made to those on restricted incomes forcing a dependency of government never made.. This was a dream bread and butter issue for the GOP which reached into every ‘demographics’ pocketbook.

They could have even ridiculed accepting the Demo-Com* definition of the hyphenated African-Hispanic -Americans . But nothing was said.*More on this later.Let alone mention the denial of God episode and the wedge issue that created within the democratic party which has yet to be exploited.

Then there is the impact of Supreme Court Appointments.. 18,000 new IRS agents and on and on. . Some were very briefly touched most were not and Benghazi/ foreign policy was left to languish.

Lastly Then there is Obamas personal extravagance and behavior refusing to visit Nashville after its disaster showing up at New Orleans after Mitt visited it. Even after the Christi thing if that was brought up it would have blunted the impact.


12 posted on 02/26/2013 4:52:20 AM PST by mosesdapoet ("It's a sin to tell a lie", in telling others that , got me my nickname .Ex Chi" mechanic"ret)
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To: DH

On another article I posted this morning I commented that what America needs in a candidate is someone like Ted Cruz whose campaign manager would be Greg Gutfeld or someone that resembles a younger Don Rickles.


13 posted on 02/26/2013 4:54:13 AM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Yup. But no matter how much info comes out pointing in the same direction, the Sherlocks on the Right will just deny it and complain about ‘purity’.


14 posted on 02/26/2013 4:57:52 AM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: RPTMS

Not if the intent was to destroy conservative candidates and hamstring the 2010 advances that were made.


15 posted on 02/26/2013 4:59:17 AM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: mosesdapoet

Excellent points all!

I we need many more ‘CONSERVATIVES’ in Congress displaying a determined and strong effort aimed at removal of this piece of human debris and his sycophants before they put the final nails in our coffins!

The entire nation is overridden with complicit politicians, courts systems, our military...you name it and they’ve got it.

We have sat by, along with those who elected this monster, and watched as the leftist loons built the pedestal, then placed the homosexuals on it, made comments against islam to be so politically incorrect in their eyes as to resemble a crime against humanity. America is a declining power whose descent in this second term will be so much more accerated as to make our heads spin and our stomachs churn to the point of regurgitating.

The answer: pray that God reveals it to us, or perhaps he already has.


16 posted on 02/26/2013 5:07:26 AM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: lilypad
I say b.s. to all of the above...we are just outnumbered by the idiots with their hands out in this country.

I completely agree. Our side was simply overrun by the mishmash of entitlement parasites, anti-America radicals, tree huggers, queers, and the conglomeration of every other freak show that makes up the rapidly growing "progressive" class.

And yes... fraud certainly occurred, but the far bigger problem is America has turned hard left on a national level. Anyone who still thinks this is a "center-right" country is in a state of deep delusion.

17 posted on 02/26/2013 5:14:17 AM PST by ScottinVA (Gun control: Steady firm grip, target within sights, squeeze the trigger slowly...)
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To: IbJensen

All politics is personal. Romney never knew that and his team’s incompetence defies all post-game analysis. Romney’s team was like an inventor in 1899 trying to get the first airplane to fly by adding anvils for “balance.”


18 posted on 02/26/2013 5:14:59 AM PST by pabianice (washington, dc ..)
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To: IbJensen

And in other news, Tokyo Rove still thinks of himself as a genius.


19 posted on 02/26/2013 5:15:31 AM PST by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: Norm Lenhart

The core problem with Romney (and RINOs in general) is this his (their) world view is wrong. They constantly misread the electorate, the political environment, and the correct tactics to win. They think acting like a Democrat will take votes away from the real Democrat. They think people like Reagan or Gingrich push voters away but they are able to win on ideas.

This campaign had no big ideas. It was ‘that guy didn’t perform, I can perform better’. It was a failed strategy. If not for the first debate, we all would have thought it was a losing effort from June forward. They were silent all summer, the convention was dull and create defensively to ‘prove’ Romney’s a nice guy, and the month of September was void of any clear strategy. I could rattle off 3-5 specific things I was hoping to see at points in the campaign that would have been effective. Other than the 1st debate, there was no sign of a message to beat Obama’s predicable campaign tactics.


20 posted on 02/26/2013 5:16:00 AM PST by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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