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Pat Caddell: Republican 'Consultant-Lobbyist-Establishment' Complex Responsible For Romney Defeat
Big Government ^ | 24 Nov 2012 | Tony Lee

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 ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012analysis; 2012electionanalysis; blame; caddell; consultants; election; patcaddell; rinos; romney; romney2012
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To: Thud

“Romney was the only major figure in the race once Perry fizzled”

Who won more states, Romney in 2008, or Santorum in 2012?


21 posted on 11/24/2012 11:05:09 AM PST by JCBreckenridge (They may take our lives... but they'll never take our FREEDOM!)
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To: Williams

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.


22 posted on 11/24/2012 11:05:48 AM PST by pioneerstakethearrows
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To: Williams

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.


23 posted on 11/24/2012 11:06:12 AM PST by dandiegirl
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To: Thebaddog
“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.”

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.

24 posted on 11/24/2012 11:06:36 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Bringing children to America without immigration documents is child abuse. Let's end it.)
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To: vmivol00

I agree. RINO Jeb Bush vs Hillary. Hillary in a landslide. Now its women’s turn for warfare against white males.


25 posted on 11/24/2012 11:10:32 AM PST by whitedog57
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To: Bratch; newgeezer

Are the cheaters in swing states the fault of the “Republican Establishment”?


26 posted on 11/24/2012 11:12:18 AM PST by DungeonMaster (Not voting against multiple ObamaPhoneWoman votes anymore.)
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To: cruise_missile
The incredibly dense electorate and the propaganda from the MSM is the reason republicans lost.

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.

27 posted on 11/24/2012 11:14:23 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Bratch

Right on. Worse than the Undocumented victor.

And Extortion-Care continued as “Replacers”

Life stealers, thiefs.


28 posted on 11/24/2012 11:17:11 AM PST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
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To: Bratch

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.


29 posted on 11/24/2012 11:17:11 AM PST by Behind the Blue Wall
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To: DungeonMaster
Are the cheaters in swing states the fault of the “Republican Establishment”?

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.

30 posted on 11/24/2012 11:18:18 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: whitedog57
I agree. RINO Jeb Bush vs Hillary.

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.

31 posted on 11/24/2012 11:18:55 AM PST by hopespringseternal
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To: Bratch
While I think voter fraud and media support for Obama were the two major factors in the campaign, Caddell makes some excellent points here.

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.

32 posted on 11/24/2012 11:20:41 AM PST by detective
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To: Bratch

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.


33 posted on 11/24/2012 11:22:55 AM PST by greene66
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To: WilliamIII
Wikipedia


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.



Interesting how Atwater's methods have been co-opted by the Democrat Party.
34 posted on 11/24/2012 11:26:40 AM PST by Bratch
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To: Williams

Sorry! “Romney gained some.” Romney got fewer votes than McCain in 2008. I wish I had voted for Ron Paul! Never again!


35 posted on 11/24/2012 11:27:44 AM PST by qman (The communist usurper must go!)
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To: cruise_missile

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


36 posted on 11/24/2012 11:29:34 AM PST by patriotspride
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To: patriotspride

Should have read

” yo Dolla”


37 posted on 11/24/2012 11:30:25 AM PST by patriotspride
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To: Bratch

I predict Caddell will love this:
www.gone2012book.com


38 posted on 11/24/2012 11:31:13 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright ("WTF?: How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost....Again")
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To: cruise_missile

BINGO!


39 posted on 11/24/2012 11:34:14 AM PST by keats5 (Not all of us are hypnotized.)
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To: Hardastarboard

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.


40 posted on 11/24/2012 11:37:58 AM PST by MissMagnolia ("It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains" - Patrick Henry)
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