Romney campaign caught off guard by fact that Obama staffers worked

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/24/1173354/-Romney-campaign-caught-off-guard-by-fact-that-Obama-staffers-worked

Rich Beeson, the Romney political director who co­authored the now-discredited Ohio memo, said that only after the election did he realize what Obama was doing with so much manpower on the ground. Obama had more than 3,000 paid workers nationwide, compared with 500 for Romney, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

“Now I know what they were doing with all the staffs and ­offices,” Beeson said. “They were literally creating a one-to-one contact with voters,” something that Romney did not have the staff to match.

What the fuck did he think the Obama staffers were doing? And if Romney's staff and volunteers weren't creating one-to-one contact with voters (also known as "door knocking" and "phone banking&quot , what the hell were they doing?

And why didn't the Romney campaign have the staff to match? Team Red had more money than Obama, and Romney ended the election with $12 million in the bank because they had run out of places to spend money!

[Angry Dragon]

1. Remember that Willard gave his people a bonus for the fine job they were doing

[Scootaloo]

2. I thought it was the other way around?

he fined them for doing a bonus job?

[ywcachieve]

8. LOL

[Mz Pip]

3. If they still have 12 million in the bank

maybe they should pay for the 8.9 million dollar transition plan they never got to use.

[Moonwalk]

4. Mittens doesn't believe in spending money on people (staffers or volunteers). He wants to....

...keep that cash in his pocket, spend it on cars and homes. Of course, if he could have outsourced that phone banking and such from China, he might have matched Obama's numbers That's the way he knows how to do things when it comes to hiring rather than firing.

[NBachers]

5. "Hello, my name is Catherine, and I am calling on behalf of the Romney campaign"

[iemitsu]

6. It is amazing just how clueless the Romney campaign was on so many issues.

It is hard to imagine Mitt Romney, the scourge of vulture capitalism, being successful at anything if his public performance, during the campaign, is indicative of his competence.
I think the Bain model, Romney's contribution to the way Americans conduct business, must have been based entirely on a charade, adopt the look of a clean, religious character while lying and cheating to gain the upper hand in business negotiations.
There's not that much there to respect.

[davidpdx]

12. It is hard to believe how clueless they were

The shitty polling, the lack of a ground campaign, a candidate that foamed at the mouth every 5 minutes.

I mean how utterly fucking stupid do you have to be not to look around at what the other campaign is doing and know that you are being out-manned by 8-10 times your opponent in terms of paid staff.

Combined this with the story that was published where Romney's son said he didn't really want to be president, I have to wonder what the hell the Republicans were doing.

[Flashmann]

20. what the hell the Republicans were doing.

I think they were secure,in the knowledge,faulty as it was,that:A.The election was in the bag,due to vote swaps,(theft) and disenfranchisement,and:B.Being not just white,but COUNTRY CLUB white,(filthy rich),they would win by virtue of deserving to win......

[SummerSnow]

28. They were all sold on their campaign slogan by Queen Anne..

"It's Our Turn"

[DonViejo]

35. All of the stories were printed in one article...

published in the Boston Globe.

Link to Boston Globe article:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2012/president/2012/12/23/the-story-behind-mitt-romney-loss-the-presidential-campaign-president-obama/2QWkUB9pJgVIi1mAcIhQjL/story.html

[Warpy]

7. Romney staffers were shaking down local businesses

for more money to be spent on commercials, of course, the top-down approach conservatives always favor. He thought the crap coming from the Evangelical pulpits would do the rest. And they all bought their own Big Lie that the polls were somehow incorrect.

Non DLC Democrats, on the other hand, have always been all about the grass roots, getting out there and getting the vote out.

[RBInMaine]

13. The DLC no longer exists, and the divisive crap talk like that isn't necessary.

[Warpy]

27. The hell it doesn't.

And yes it is.

[Ikonoklast]

36. The DLC wound up operations early last year.

They no longer exist as an organization.

[ZombieHorde]

9. Seems weird to me that a Mormon wouldn't think to send folks door to door. nt

[eShirl]

10. this. n/t

[murielm99]

26. Oh, LOL!

[madinmaryland]

33. I think Mormons do more door to door in France. nt

[Ikonoklast]

37. He figured it never worked for him before.

Why would it now?

[CJCRANE]

11. In the 47% video when the donors ask him what they can do to help him get his message out...

Romney just says give me more money for ads.

He also mentioned that the debates were important (and from his performance in the first debate you can see that he put a lot of effort into that).

[NewJeffCT]

15. That first debate was hugely important

If it was basically a draw, or Obama had won, the election would have basically been over at that time, and the only question was how big of a landslide it would be. In the few weeks leading up to the debate, Obama had been extending his lead because of the 47% comments and all the other gaffes Romney had made...

[Gothmog]

14. The GOP has a very different concept of GOTV

The Obama campaign focused on personal contacts to GOTV and the Romney campaign felt that the old ways used by the GOP would continue to work.

[ThoughtCriminal]

16. I suspect the GOP wasted way too much $ on over-paid consultants

and not enough for the "Grunt" work. Out of the hundreds of millions spent, how much of that went to the one-percenters,? They certainly didn't want to lower themselves to one-on-one with puny little voters. They figured ad buys would make up for that.

Just another failure of the GOP world view.

[RickFromMN]

17. Have the statistics been verified? Did 3 million Republicans stay home for the 2012 election?

I suspect there will be much arguing and hand wringing in Republican circles why Republicans stayed home.

I suspect some will argue Romney wasn't conservative enough.
I suspect others will argue Romney was too conservative.
I will admit I could never figure out what Romney stood for; he was Mister Etch-A-Sketch.

Any statistics how many Democrats stayed home for the 2012 election?

From a quick google search it seems President Obama won the minority vote.
The pundits seemed to guess wrong the size of the minority vote and how they would vote.

I expected Romney to win the white male vote.
My quick google search surprised me when I found claims Romney won the white female vote.
Is there any way to deprogram the white voters brainwashed by the FOX news propaganda?

[John2]

18. There was

no area, the Obama campaign refused to go. You want find Romney's campaign in areas that have heavy minority presence, except maybe Cubans in Florida. Whenever the Romney campaign say those people, I think they mostly meant minorities. I also think minority voters were who they wanted to suppress from voting. If anyone was race baiting, it was the Republicans. Most people don't want to push that envelope but lets be be frank about the real issue they have. Instead of speaking to issues that affect minority voters, they rather suppress them.

There is about 39-40 percent of the white population in this country which is liberal. Most of that population is regional also. Most of Romney's support among whites comes from the entire South also. This includes white women in the South. President Obama actually got more support among white males in North Carolina than white women. That would suprise some people. In 2008, he won more white women in the state but most of his drop in support this time was among white women in North Carolina. A lot of these women get married, and usually supports their husbands' careers while they stay home. So support among these women was soft anyway.

[lunatica]

19. Romney said he wasn't worried about the 47% don't you remember?

Why in the world would he spend money on them? They would never vote for him anyway.

[Flashmann]

21. would never vote for him anyway.

And,former Senator Rick Frothymixture said the smart people would not vote GOP....Remember THAT?......

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Romney thought that he could buy the election

[libodem]

24. And sometimes it works that way

There used to be a direct link to whom ever spent the most won.

[GoCubsGo]

23. Not surprising. The righties believe their own lies.

You know, like the lie that non-republicans are "lazy". Or, that people automatically just ran off to vote for Obama because, he's, you know, black. They also believed their money would buy them the election. Ooops. Guess not. LOL!

[libdem4life]

25. Mitt's experience is in sending forth money to beget more money to make more money.

The reverse of that dreaded "community organizing" amongst the huddled masses.

[SummerSnow]

29. DAMN..This is all Anne's fault

She threw Mitts off his game by wearing that damn tiara around the house.

[grantcart]

30. if you click thru Kos's links there are some fascinating posts

He shows that Romney out spent Obama by $100 million in ads but only gokt 20% of the spots.

[tblue37]

31. But they couldn't afford the ground game, because

they needed to direct most of that donated cash to their cronies' operations-- consulting, media buys, IT, etc. They weren't about to use that money to actually pay low-level operatives--you know, "grunts"--to do menial labor. If the big boys couldn't profit from an approach, then there was no incentive to use it.

[tblue37]

32. BTW! I just read

"End of the Line," the new ebook about the last 34 days in both campaigns. It's a bit too "both sides" in a couple of places, but it' s interesting and offers some new insider info.

The ebook, which costs $2.99, is 66 pages long-- a quick read.

[Retrograde]

34. Exactly - the ground game doesn't put money in Bain companies' pockets

It's consistent with Romney's done his whole life, though - make sure a bit of the money that passes through his hands sticks to his fingers - or his cronies'.

[yardwork]

39. That's a very good point. The money had to go to cronies.

[annabanana]

38. Pfft! They ALL think that "marketing" and "messaging" are the answers.

corporate idiots

[we can do it]

40. I did not see one rmoney canvasser or door hanger, etc....

I was out canvassing nearly every day the 6 weeks before the election.