Posted on 02/21/2014 5:19:36 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Won one general election for Governor in 2002, won two other nominations for Senator in 1994 and his coronation for President in 2012. He didn’t run for reelection in 2006 because he would’ve probably lost. Calling him “electable” is ludicrous by any stretch. Now, if he ran as the Democrat he has always been...
Party nominations are not elections. How many elections, on the other hand, has Governor Sarah Palin won? Yet she’s considered unelectable.
Really???
City Council, Mayor, Governor. Aside from VP, the only race she lost was when she ran in 2002 for Lieutenant Governor and failed to get the nomination. As for an individual considered electable or unelectable, you have to see exactly whom is calling them that. The only people who call Palin unelectable are those terrified that she could win. Those that call Willard electable are those that know he can’t.
That’s why he’s President now, y’know.
Precisely right.
Yes.
Because there's mounting evidence that the party's political class simply isn't good at running campaigns anymore.
Dan's comment - Part of the problem is that the high level consultants who keep getting jobs do a bad job but get rehired time and time again. They were not that good in the first place, and their clients listen to them too often.
My comment - I couldn't agree more. Those consultants always blame someone else after the election as well to protect themselves.
The chasm is widest in technology, an area where Democrats have innovated heavily while Republican tactics ossified. But the data and digital divide, while getting most of the attention, is only a symptom of a larger problem that cuts fundamentally to how the Republican Party operates—not just at a tactical level but also a philosophical one. The well-worn pathways of the party's operatives, in which every low-level staffer commits his or her career to becoming a well-paid TV specialist, must change. The party's best and brightest need to emulate the career arc of their Democratic counterparts, who devote themselves to data and fieldwork, areas where races are increasingly won or lost.
Dan's Comment - Technology is important and more important than the TV ads, but is still overrated. Data in the field is extremely important and we're playing catchup here. That said, campaigns aren't exotic. It just takes organization, good candidates, good campaigns, and hard work.
My Comment - I know Dan's definition of a good candidate, but most of all it is someone who works hard, is trustworthy, and knows how to carry himself. People vote on competence and attitude more than ideology. Before we ask if someone is conservative enough, we need to ask ourselves if we can trust this person and if this person is capable of doing the job. People didn't trust Romney.
It's about transforming how the party conducts its campaigns, from operations that rely heavily on TV and conventional wisdom to data-driven efforts that reach across all media. Most important, it requires that staffers on those campaigns, from campaign manager to rank-and-file workers, overhaul not just what they do but how they think.
Dan's comment - See my consulting comments above. TV is diminishing returns at best. The message on the TV with corporate-speak is worse. It doesn't say anything most of the time. Another political ad. Click.
My comment - Good luck with that, Dan.
A December study by the progressive political firm New Organizing Institute found a wide chasm between the number of staffers on Democratic versus Republican campaigns—nationally, the ratio was close to 3-to-1 in favor of Democrats. In swing-state Nevada, where Republicans had hoped the housing bust and vibrant Mormon community would lift Mitt Romney to victory, the totals were even more lopsided: 498 Democrats worked the state, to only 20 Republicans.
Dan's Comment - The GOP relies on volunteers. The dems rely on unions. Worse, the GOP relies on the 2004 Karl Rove phone call playbook which I refuse to use as those calls hurt more than help. When I had the landline, I was getting 8 calls a day. People get tired of the political calls. We need to microtarget and concentrate on quality as much as quantity. I need to get 65% in my county to have a good shot to win statewide. These candidates need to sell to my increasingly frustrated county citizens. I'm seeing potential changes, but need to see it to believe it.
My comments - I'm in a democrat stronghold county. The dems can do knock and drag operations in the big cities like Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It doesn't work as well in rural areas like mine, or even Dan's.
Unlike unions, those GOP-leaning groups don't invest much in the ground game, which, to many GOP operatives who do work in the field, is part of a bigger problem. The GOP's political class simply doesn't value that kind of work, even if it's increasingly important in the 21st century. Most young Republican operatives view organizing as a mere entry point to a career that will eventually lead to bigger, and better-paying, gigs. "Democrats actually set up and train people to think about those jobs as careers," said Brian Stobie, a partner at the GOP data-management firm Optimus. "A field-organizing roll can be a career over there. In our world, it's a $27,000-a-year job you can't wait to get out of." "All you're thinking the whole time is, 'I can't wait to get out of this and be the political director,' " he added.
Dan's comment - My state senator is a country guy who beat everybody in his first election by knocking on 15,000 doors. He won. The bigshots usually send a 20 year old yesman for the field work. These kids know what they are told by HQ, and at the same time the top field staff are usually about 25 and look down on us. One of them was threatening volunteers, and I called him out right there. He didn't understand that the guys in that room knew a lot more than he did. The problem isn't him, but the culture from HQ, especially national HQ. If you want stuff done right here, you hire the locals and let us do our jobs. Give me a candidate worth selling, too. I did everything in one recent election with only a months notice. I stretched every dollar, raised $3000, and we won our race 3-1. I have good political experience, but I had 25 years in the township as well, and the major neighborhood affected was my own.
My Comment - From what I'm hearing GOP-E still doesn't get it.
"We are so individualistic on the Republican side, both in our philosophy and policy," Harris said. "It definitely bleeds over into how we are managing and structuring campaigns. And we have to break that."
Dan's comment - I can't agree with that. The problem is that HQ doesn't trust people to do their jobs. They try to fit a collectivist structure on a very individualistic county.
My comment - Couldn't agree more.
Even the party's agenda can get in the way. As Robert Draper outlined in The New York Times Magazine in February, the party's conservatism on cultural issues might prevent it from recruiting the young operatives it needs from Silicon Valley and other places. The problems with these tech-savvy youths mirror the GOP's problem with young voters in general who might sympathize with the party's fiscal conservatism. As Draper wrote, the GOP's opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights alienates those would-be operatives. The talent pools the GOP must tap into, then, are running dry.
Dan's comment - BS. The general population I talk to rarely bring up that issue one way or the other, and I'm in one of the most socially conservative parts of Michigan. We expect people to mind their own business here. That means I don't invade your bedroom, and you don't bring it to the town square. As far as abortion goes, a lot of the younger generation is pro-life. There are pro-life libertarian republicans as well. If my party caves on abortion, 75% of my volunteers will walk, and I along with them. This is an issue to us on par with the evils of slavery. If you go bad on life, you're politically dead here. If you go bad on guns, you're even more politically dead here. Also, why go to Silicon Valley? There's a lot of tech talent in Texas, Loudon County, and Troy Michigan. This is looking like a Hail Mary pass attempt instead of proven old fashion boring hard work. Miracles don't happen without people doing what it needed to make it happen.
My comment - Flip on abortion and I walk.
It's not that the GOP leaders don't get it. Most of them talk with guys like Ruffini, Lundry, and Harris all the time. They use the same language, too, urging the party to transform its political culture while overhauling its data capabilities.
Dan's comment - Do your consultants get it? That's your biggest problem. I'm hearing the RNC gets it and PARTS of the MIGOP get it. What about the consultant class? Rove. Fred Davis. Stuart Stevens. Steven Schmidt. Those types are the ones that always eff up everything. I'll believe it when I see it.
My comment - All the talk about this is great, but at the end, you need to sell a candidate. There's one fatal flaw here at the beginning of this article. The more electable ones, like Mitt Romney Mitt Romney lost to John McCain. How was he electable? He wasn't. Give me a candidate to work with.
Candidate quality is still the most important part of an election. The media can't pick our candidate.
Yes, MA Governor in 2002.
Lost 1994 USS vs. Kennedy
Lost 2008 GOP POTUS
Lost 2012 USA POTUS
Bob Shrum is the Stuart Stevens of the democrats.
Exhibit A: Steve Schmidt. Exhibit B: Nicole Wallace.
Yet Gov. Palin has won at least five elections and tried to drag Senator McCain, kicking and screaming, across the finish line in 2008.
I’ll tell you our number one problem. Churches. I read that only 50% of people who call themselves Christian vote. Pastors have also backed off speaking out against moral issue that are political. I emailed Ted Cruz and reminded him of how churches would probably love to hear him speak. I hear he’s quite the speaker of truth to evil. It’s just want this country needs.
I meant to say how churches would love to hear his father, the pastor. speak.
I’ll tell you our number one problem. Churches. I read that only 50% of people who call themselves Christian vote. Pastors have also backed off speaking out against moral issue that are political. I emailed Ted Cruz and reminded him of how churches would probably love to hear him speak. I hear he’s quite the speaker of truth to evil. It’s just want this country needs.
Yep, you’re right.
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