Romney’s campaign consultants were incompetent, in it for the money

Conservatives4Palin ^ | November 10 2012 | Doug Brady

[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.

[nathanbedford]

Caution: this article is devoid of factual support beyond unsupported allegations or very thinly supported allegations. There is nothing in this article which justifies conclusions made in the article or made subsequently by FReepers in reply.

Make no mistake, I want the scalps of the Republican establishment is much as anyone but I want to proceed on the basis of facts and not be blown about by Palin supporters or by Palin opponents. This article is crap.

There is some factual information, again unfortunately tilting more toward allegations or insinuations, that the get out the vote effort was a fiasco, that the technology involved failed and was never tested, that Romney was kept in the dark and misled. But this article does not do it.

[nathanbedford]

Caution: this article is devoid of factual support beyond unsupported allegations or very thinly supported allegations. There is nothing in this article which justifies conclusions made in the article or made subsequently by FReepers in reply.

Make no mistake, I want the scalps of the Republican establishment is much as anyone but I want to proceed on the basis of facts and not be blown about by Palin supporters or by Palin opponents. This article is crap.

There is some factual information, again unfortunately tilting more toward allegations or insinuations, that the get out the vote effort was a fiasco, that the technology involved failed and was never tested, that Romney was kept in the dark and misled. But this article does not do it.

[Palin_Rubio2012]

No a Troll huh? from your verbage i doubt it but I’ll respond.

This discussion is not about being outsmarted or even voter fraud. Try reading the post again and see if you can grasp what it is saying.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”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. “

Last year this source C4P said Palin was absolutely running so you should take what is written with a grain of salt.

[Springfield Reformer]

Sun Tzu said it well:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

In our case, failing to recognize the Marxist’s vast scope of ambition, coupled with their complete lack of moral restraint, is nothing less than irresponsible. The true nature of this conflict should lead the wise general to prepare for battle, not just with the pawns in the forward ranks, but with the taller pieces standing in the background, including but not limited to their historic propensity for stealing elections. Know yourself. Know your enemy. No other path to victory.

[Alberta's Child]

Democrats aren't smarter than Republicans. They're just more desperate. Most successful Republicans see politics as a hobby. Democrats have turned it into an industry because the party is filled with people who can't earn an honest living in any other walk of life.

The two major candidates in this election are a perfect case in point. By the time he entered politics for the first time when he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2003, Mitt Romney had already accomplished more in his life -- mostly outside the public eye -- than most Americans will accomplish in a dozen lifetimes.

By the time Barack Obama ran for president he had been in politics for more than 10 years ... and yet he didn't even have any noteworthy accomplishments in politics in all this time.

[mosesdapoet]

I go back to Goldwate/ Nixonr daze and participated in Reagans national campaign at state level(Illinois) and this is what I see happened here;

The media was never called out.

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 barrel with.. He failed to hammer away on what will happen when Obama gets returned; The Obama 2013/14 Tax Increases. The impact of Obama’s energy policies..(this by the way is not just gas prices this is socialist applied policy whoich affected the cost of everything and it was done to meet a socialist concept and affected every demographic). It was barely mentioned let alone called for what it was. The impact of Supreme Court Appointments.. 18,000 new IRS agents and on and on. Including rampant corruption, presidential extravagence and demeanor like visiting Nashville after its disaster or following Romney to New Orleans.

Instead we got a sales pitch on executive ability but not the reason why one should toss the old model and buy his.

In addition Rove who I understand was handling the Senate PAC campaign played games. His material(which should have supplemented Romney shortcommings but didn’t)
never warned voters that if Obama gets re-elected as well as the senate the chances of repealing Obama care ...AND ALL THE TAX INCREASES THAT GO WITH IT WILL NEVER GET REPEALED

The polling was dead on. They didn’t believe nor examine it.By setting up focus groups to determine and adjust material to combat it. Even to the point of going into the hinterland and listening to talk in coffee shops or bars.(Forget that twitter stuff that’s too easy to fix)

By Romney’s reaction to the loss there was no conspiracy on his part. Fact is when your getting great turnouts its deceptive . But when if you belong to a regular GOP organization and you’ve been getting decent turnouts earlier but at a weekday regular meeting before Nov 6th you only get a hand full to turnout at your organizational meeting you know you have a problem .

Nuts...This loss is inexcuseable

[iopscusa]

Fluke Romney, the tool only campaigned effectively against the Conservative/Libertarian voters otherwise he had been running for 6+ years for the Presidency and yet was clueless and defeated by failed leftist after spending ?$ billions. Stupid GOP-E scumbags!