Posted on 11/10/2012 8:12:14 PM PST by Bratch
In too many posts to count, I’ve argued that the reason Romney was the overwhelming choice of the Washington campaign consultant class since the day after McCain lost in 2008 was that he was their dream candidate. He possessed the two qualities most prized by this insular population of political parasites who occupy the D.C. beltway: An enormous amount of money and an equally enormous dearth of core convictions. For this reason, they correctly recognized Romney as someone who could easily be fleeced for a virtually limitless amount of money. He’d shower them with tens of millions of dollars in return for their sage “advice” on what he should think and say. It was always in their financial interest that Romney be the nominee and that someone like Governor Palin, who they knew would never fund their lavish lifestyles, be prevented from winning the nomination by any means possible. For campaign consultants, the “best candidate” isn’t the one with the best message or best chance of victory, but rather the one from whom they’ll amass the most cash. That’s how they pay their bills.
Governor Palin’s was the undisputed leader of the conservative fight against Obama in the run-up to the 2010 midterms, and it was increasingly clear to the beltway insiders that she had to be stopped lest they lose their multi-million dollar meal ticket. Even before the election, they did everything they could to minimize her role in the upcoming Republican sweep by trying to discredit her in their usual, gutless manner: false narratives spread via anonymous leaks. I discussed this at length a few days before the election:
Who has the most to gain by minimizing Governor Palin’s enormous role in the mid-term elections? Far be it from me, Dear Reader, to speculate on such things. I’ll leave that up to you. But as you contemplate this, there are a few salient questions to consider.
First, for whom do these mysterious “insiders” work (or want to work)? Keep in mind that Washington political consultants are basically parasites whose foremost goal is to suck as much money out of a campaign’s coffers as possible. But they first have to get hired by a campaign and, to do this, they must ingratiate themselves to the candidate. Most of these insiders know that Governor Palin will not play their game and, consequently, won’t hire their incompetent, backstabbing a*ses, so it’s undoubtedly in their financial interest that she not win the nomination. Sure, they’ll be able to find work on House and Senate campaigns, perhaps a campaign for the local dog catcher, but the real money is in the big show: the presidential election.
Second, which potential candidate benefits the most by a concerted effort to marginalize the Tea Party in general, and Governor Palin in particular? It would have to be an establishment candidate, of course. A candidate the Tea Party would never support. One who has taken positions that are, shall we say, anathema to the limited government principles espoused by Governor Palin and the Tea Party movement. A candidate whose position on, for example, government run health care is less than pristine.
Third, which candidate has consistently been promoted by Washington consultants and insiders as being the “inevitable” Republican candidate in 2012? Hmmmmm. And finally, who is willing and able to hire as many of these campaign advisors as it takes regardless of how much they cost? In other words, which candidate will result in the most financial gain for the community of mercenaries known as Washington political consultants?
I’m certainly not clairvoyant, but things turned out pretty much as I thought they would over two years ago. And today, in an eye-opening, though not surprising, piece at Redstate, Ben Howe exposes just how accurate I was, and how much of a mess these high-priced leeches made of the Romney campaign (emphasis mine).
Stu Stevens of the Stevens and Schriefer Group was said to not be chasing poll numbers with the media buy strategy and appeared instead to be doing little more than “throwing darts at a dartboard.” At best using false numbers provided by ORCA; at worst milking the cash cow of the Romney campaign.
Most of the more public players, like Andrea Saul and Gail Gitcho, were doing their jobs as adequately as possible given that the apparently the poll numbers, ground operations & virtually all statistics and data involved with GOTV efforts were inaccurate. However, players like Richard Beeson, Romney’s Political Director, are said to have spent the first half of the year “traveling state to state settling scores” instead of doing crucial campaign preparation.
According to all the sources I spoke to, the breakdown of the campaign can be traced to the primaries. One source saying “they looked at the guy who could raise the most money in history as a ride” adding that “money no longer matters. That’s the problem,” also referring to the campaign overall as “the biggest political flim flam of all time.”
The result of all of these false numbers and inaccurate ground reports is simple: Mitt Romney was ill-prepared for the actual numbers on election day and his false sense of confidence directly translated into how the campaign operated in the closing weeks. In the words of one source, it was a con job. As David Mamet famously said, “If you’re in the con game and you don’t know who the mark is … you’re the mark.” Mitt Romney had no idea what was coming.
Shocking that. Romney’s army of over-priced campaign consultants and D.C. insiders were simply there to do as little work as possible while milking Mitt’s money machine for as much cash as possible. My decision to stick with my gut and not send these bloodsuckers any of mine is looking better and better. One of Romney’s self-touted selling points has been his great managerial ability. Shouldn’t a good business manager know when he’s being fleeced for a colossal amount of money by a bunch of high priced grifters? A rhetorical question, I know.
Governor Palin had these huckster’s number from day one, and they knew it. Mitt Romney? Not so much, and he got what he paid (handsomely) for. Anyone dumb enough to hire these con artists in the future will also get what they pay for. Maybe they’ll follow the example of former McCain staffers Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace and work for MSNBC. Who cares.
There’s a lot more to Howe’s piece and I urge you to read the whole thing.
Bottom line, the consultants want a non-partisan candidate whom they can maneuver in whatever direction their endless polls and focus groups take them.
I hope those Judases enjoy their pieces of silver while they can.
Sickening that they’d bet against the country.
I guess the fact that Mitt was not the candidate that most conservatives wanted had noting to do with it.
well he could not be called Willard the Wise thats for sure...
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways..James 1:8
Palin is on my side. I am damn sick of paying a monthly check to a fat bitch wo breeds more fat bitches. I have worked in Atlanta and their whole life is to get your money. I was in a town where the whole black inhabitants were hanging out. I asked if it was a holiday. I got laughed at . Anyone that supports this welfare system is out of their mind. I will take you there. Drinking every day. They do not work. Ever. They breed.
remember, there was unquestionable fraud...in many areas...even Colorado...
so where do we begin criticizing when we don't even know if Romney actually lost?....
solve that question, they we can critique,,,
This is a good question, and it's not a rhetorical one, either. It's not terribly relevant in this case because in a political campaign, the candidate is not the business manager.
Having said that, I just had a wild thought that the GOP missed a golden opportunity to put together a game plan for 2012 that would have been unstoppable: Nominate a "movement conservative" (I'll use Sarah Palin as an example only because the author uses her in this piece) to go up against Obama, and have Romney manage the financial and organizational aspects of the campaign while the "professionals" run the political side of things.
Just a wild thought here ...
I gave him money and supported him too. And these allegations infuriate me because I find the idea of him surrounded by backstabbers while people like us are working hard to save our country disgusting.
I believe there was fraud committed, but at the same time Romney seemed to have had his campaign full of consultants who were victims of groupthink and not fully in it to win it.
I too have been thinking but not wanting to believe this, hoping against hope it wasn't true.
The LOVE of money (not the money itself) is the root of all evil. (and you can look that up!)
Wealthy people don't like to contribute to grassroots campaigns without a political consultant in control so the candidate won't lose control and the peons be havin big parties and barbeeques with their contributions.
They generally don't trust righteous conservative candidates or populist candidates unless a political pro has a short leash on the campaign treasurer.
They're also afraid of being turned on by the conservative candidate after elected should righteous principles in public policy become involved if you know what I mean!!!
The smarter and richer one is, the more challenging and easier to fool they are as a "mark!"
They've become so successful and powerful and over confident that these types can be had easier that some on the lower end of the spectrum that still use common sense (like righteous conservatives who more uncertain and lean on a higher power)!!!
I agree with Rush that Romney is a good human being and would never deliberately hurt a fly. Sometimes, as another good man like Reagan proved, you had to be more assertive and although trying to trust... You had to verify!!!
Explains it all, good work
Who could have beaten this juggernaut - this amalgam of racists, liars, media, illegals, takers, idiots, and on and on and on?
If you confront them you’re demonized as mean, if you play nice you’re portrayed as weak, if you state the hard cold facts the media ignores you, if you make the case for jobs the lazy takers are outraged, if you expect women to behave like adult women and not mindless greedy miscreants whose only concern is their vaginas then you are against women.
When you’ve got the media you’ve got everything.
Anybody can be a Monday Morning Quarterback...
Besides, since he lost on Tuesday and this is Saturday and all the Monday morning quarterbacks will be on TV on Sunday morning... You can't possible mean that I'm one of those, right??? (grin)
I voted for Romney. I’m not trolling here; but if all this is true about Romney’s team, while Obama’s team effectively got out the vote, can there be any other conclusion than the Dems seem a whole lot smarter than the Reps?
BTW if all the charges of fraud are also true, it appears the Dems outsmarted the pure-as-the-driven-snow, child-like Republicans in fraud as well.
Yep — Mitt got conned as he was conning us —
Reagan didn’t need no stinking consultants.
He's probably still shaking his head trying to figure out what happened to him mumbling things like "but Rove said ..." and "ORCA ... what happened to ORCA???" -- as he writes another check.
Reminds me of Saddam’s “Yes Men” in Baghdad on the eve of the American Invasion on March 17, 2003.
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.