Posted on 11/08/2012 10:30:53 PM PST by stillonaroll
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Wow! That shows a stunning level of campaign incompetence.
Can anyone run the Republican Party? I mean who is running this show, they haven’t had a decent chairman since Lee Atwater.
“The Rats have mastered the new technology, but we have not.”
I don’t buy that general premise. We did not have major glitches in 2004. I have to put it on the current team and only suggest someone thought their were more brilliant than the 2004 team, rewrote everything and screwed it all up.
The 2004 process used VPN (Virtual Private Network), personal over-the-Internet-from-home, plus Email driven downloads and uploads against the same, constant-real-time updated database - making all activity whether call center run or otherwise seemless with each other. “Facebook” and “Twitter” apps would have integrated with it with ease. There was just no excuse. We have mastered it.
I have to put it on the current team and only suggest someone thought they were more brilliant than the 2004 team, rewrote everything completely and screwed it all up. Frankly, that kind of “I’m better than the last guy” mentality is NOT foreign in the IT world; and I’d guess the Dims have a 50/50 chance of rewriting their operation in some worse fashion next time.
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I have similar thoughts. Other than tax policy, I probably won't be following politics as much as I have.
However, I think it is instructive to do a post-mortem on this election. There are a lot more problems than just GOTV, but it is something that the GOP must execute much better in the future.
Capn Ahab killed Moby Dick ???
My theory is that the Rats gained a few points in GOTV-driven turnout since 2004 because they have "evolved" their campaign strategy, while the R's have not kept up.
I can see how an elderly McCain campaign would fail to keep up with technological advances, but inexcusable for someone as successful in business as Romney said he was.
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Good ideas there. Don't have top down organized GOTV without strong local GOTV efforts. Most importantly, don't wait until the presidential election to test the system.
the problem is not “smartphone” technology or not
most any “smartphone” user has access to the Internet ON the “smartphone” using the browser app on the smartphone, and has access to their Email from the smartphone, and can upload and download files from their smartphone; and the database in 2004 was fully integrated from all points, as I said
and, in fact all the 2004 “Internet” links would continue to work through “smartphones” without an specific “GOTV smartphone app”
the essentials of the system is simply linking all volunteers to the same database, so as to say: “here’s some people and their phone numbers that need calling”, the confirmation reponse that the assignment is accepted, the volunteer follow-up response which is no more than a check-off list of which of the assigned numbers were called, and what the response was; and that response confirms two things - calls completed and calls that are again open to be called by someone else because they were not called or were called and not reached
using a “smartphone” does not change that operation or its requirements to any great degree
I think the 2004GWB operation had involved close to a million volunteers on the system in the final week of the campaign
I can’t think of much of it I could not do from my smartphone today that I did from my PC in 2004.
NO. I think someone rewrote the base system, thinking, in error, “smartphone” technology required it, when in fact anything special for “smartphones” would have only needed extensions to the system as it was in 2004, but I am frankly not certain any were really needed.
However, that kind of contact, from someone polite and articulate, seems very unlikely to motivate a voter to actually vote for the other candidate. The most likely result is no change in voter behavior, but a certain percentage will be persuaded and will vote accordingly. That is enough to sway a close election.
The Rats do more of it, and are better at it, than we are.
My packet arrived Sunday morning - 3:25 am. I tried to cut and paste the relevant section unsuccessfully - but the bottom middle “Chair...” was correct on mine - the checkbox was labeled “Copy of Credentials”. My credentials were emailed to me Sunday night. Pretty close call in this kind of operation.
I was never able to log in from my phone (did get to the proper https page ok - put in login id and password, just never worked). Never worked. There was another volunteer at my voting location, he was able to get through for a very brief period. Absolute disaster in operation - I called and did get through to headquarters, only to be told it was down and would be up in a few minutes - then resetting my password, then my Logon ID and password - never willing to implement any of the backup procedures they had established. 30000 volunteers - I would really like a report on the result but havent seen one. How much information was actually gathered on election day - about 20 names made it through from my voting location in a timely manner - out of almost 1600 that voted, leaving several hundred that could have been contacted. We gathered the information by hand on our printouts but had no way to effectively give the information to them - even though I offered multiple ways to effectively give it to them, either by marked up email or by phone.
Romneys team really blew this one. Big time. I know they were worried about being hacked, and maybe they were - they should let us know. I spent 13 hours straight dedicated to trying to make this work - 30000 people that were vetted (they checked all volunteers to make sure they didnt have telltale signs of being pro-Obama - checking social media, etc...)and were enthusiastic to help make a difference - and instead of truly organizing to the local level where things could have been effective - they wasted our time and lost what should have been won.
Its obvious the Democrats cheated - the high (100% in some precincts) voter turnout is absolutely unbelievable. I frankly was amazed at the difficulties the likely Obama voters had - they had just moved in, didn’t have ID, expired drivers licenses, etc... that caused a lot of provisional votes if at all, to think 100% could do it all right in Cleveland, give me a break. But even if cleaned up Obama probably still have won a very, very slim majority due to some conservatives unwillingness to support a non-perfect candidate and the absolute failure of the GOTV effort because someone made a decision to go big - modernize. When all the votes are actually in, the analysis seems to support he will have had more votes than McCain - while Obamas numbers collapsed from 4 years ago. If Project Orca had actually worked, Romney should have won by a large margin.
Sorry to vent - Im just p****d that Centinella did not get this thing field tested - a dry run that would have given them time to fix the flaws. In retrospect, at least in Ohio where voter lists are updated at 11am and 4pm, the Party needs to work a deal with the state to just get a download of the information - even if they pay for it. Would be well worth it, would have accomplished the goal for knowledge and freed up thousands of volunteers to actually get the vote out.
The campaign needs to expect such dirty tricks and plan for them.
I worked for a giant aerospace company. In 1984 we were working on a multi-billion dollar proposal.
We found out that our General Manager’s secretary was sleeping with the Program Manager of the competitor.
We created a secret, alternative proposal with themes, pricing, etc. and made sure it crossed her desk.
We won, of course. The enemy bought it....hook, line, and sinker.
Trap ‘em, spoof ‘em, deceive ‘em.
Orca bookmark
“My theory is that the Rats gained a few points in GOTV-driven turnout since 2004 because they have “evolved” their campaign strategy, while the R’s have not kept up.”
my theory is that any technical snafu was less than the actual, in the precints “ground game” making use of what all the volunteers got into the database
lastly, the GWB campaign and the RNC were integrated in 2004 with respect to the GOTV effort and its ground game, & they did not depend on the party apparatus in the states for that effort or the ground game in the precincts; it connected with them but the RNC people, organized for work in the precincts, did not work for or on the instructions of the state party people; I don’t know how the operations connected or did not connect this time
Are you effing kidding me? What a disaster.
I wasn't with ORCA (thank God). I was with lawyers for Romney which is a different branch. This one was done old school. The person in charge here made sure I had my credentials and did a good job with us.
Credentials matters are basic poll challenging 101. No poll chair in his right mind will allow someone in without proper credentials. They take poll security very seriously.
Unbelievable. Before worrying about the fancy stuff, take care of logistics 101.
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Love it! Seems the R's can't seem to learn that being nice to the Rats will never be reciprocated.
And of course, no mention of the fact that Mitt Romney was not like by the base at all, that he supported both Abortion and the Gay Agenda and the negative impacts that had on Christians voting.
No, the problem was all procedural, not the fact that he was the worst GOP Presendential candidate ever!
Romney's weakness as a candidate is also a separate issue, and we must avoid--at all cost--another Romney/McCain/Dole nominee.
What Breitbart and others are highlighting is a failure of a key component of winning campaigns: GOTV = get out the vote operations. The GOP's Orca technology failed miserably, as a number of FReepers experienced personally.
In every election, there is a small percentage of marginal or persuadable voters, some of whom will only vote if given an extra nudge by a committed volunteer. In a close election, as we just experienced, those incremental votes can be crucial.
Hopefully, the Stupid Party has learned its lesson.
Whatever was done this time must not be done again.
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