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"The end result," Ekdahl wrote, "was that 30,000+ of the most active and fired-up volunteers were wandering around confused and frustrated when they could have been doing anything else to help. The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of [get out the vote] efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that."
As Romney's Communications Director Gail Gitcho put it in the PBS piece, "The Obama campaign likes to brag about their ground operation, but it's nothing compared to this."
Thank you for posting about this despite being an Obama supporter. I know you posted it to make fun of Romney, but I still thank you.
Anyone who actually took the time out of their lives to vote for Romney should be upset about this. Anyone who actually donated their money or time to help Romney get elected (myself included) should be livid about this fiasco. It's one thing to lose an election. It's quite another to lose an election when there is such a complete lack of effort and such utter incompetence coming from the campaign.
ORCA wasn't the only thing they did wrong, but they bet so much on it that they should have made sure it would work flawlessly. Instead the exact opposite happened. (Oh, and I don't think they even tested it at all.) What's even worse is that it wasn't just the technology. Did they just forget that people might need credentials to be poll observers?
Thank you for posting about this despite being an Obama supporter. I know you posted it to make fun of Romney, but I still thank you.
Anyone who actually took the time out of their lives to vote for Romney should be upset about this. Anyone who actually donated their money or time to help Romney get elected (myself included) should be livid about this fiasco. It's one thing to lose an election. It's quite another to lose an election when there is such a complete lack of effort and such utter incompetence coming from the campaign.
I guess he was so arrogant in thinking it would be a slam dunk to him, guess that is what happens when you have people around you not willing to tell you the truth or he heard it and they told him but he just didn't give a damn.
I'd be upset. This was an utter failure from a leadership and business perspective. A failed product launch when it mattered most from someone selling their business acumen.
"The end result," Ekdahl wrote, "was that 30,000+ of the most active and fired-up volunteers were wandering around confused and frustrated when they could have been doing anything else to help. The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of [get out the vote] efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that."
As Romney's Communications Director Gail Gitcho put it in the PBS piece, "The Obama campaign likes to brag about their ground operation, but it's nothing compared to this."
uh huh...
But! But!
Romney's such a genius manager at, like, everything, man!
I guess he was so arrogant in thinking it would be a slam dunk to him, guess that is what happens when you have people around you not willing to tell you the truth or he heard it and they told him but he just didn't give a damn.
Except his internal polls actually had him ahead. Didn't you hear? His pollster assumed that the 2008 turnout wouldn't be replicated.
I'd be upset. This was an utter failure from a leadership and business perspective. A failed product launch when it mattered most from someone selling their business acumen.
Priceless.
Yes. ORCA was, as you so eloquently said, an "utter failure." No, I am not being sarcastic. Calling it an utter failure is generous when they pinned so much of their hopes on it, thinking it would be flawless. Apparently they thought they would get about a 3% boost in the swing states because of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Green Onions
But! But!
Romney's such a genius manager at, like, everything, man!
He's so brilliant at running things!
That's why he's so totally electable!
Well, here's the thing. Candidates don't usually really run their campaigns and I assume Romney had little control over this. You and I of course disagree on this, but I think Obama has been an absolutely terrible leader despite his campaigns having been run very, very well both elections.
This being said, the buck does stop at the top and Romney should not have delegated so much to people who were such terrible managers. I don't think there's a lot of correlation between how a campaign is run and how effective a leader someone is if they are elected, but the buck does stop at the top and I do think Romney deserves blame for this nightmare.
Yes. ORCA was, as you so eloquently said, an "utter failure." No, I am not being sarcastic. Calling it an utter failure is generous when they pinned so much of their hopes on it, thinking it would be flawless. Apparently they thought they would get about a 3% boost in the swing states because of it.
Well, here's the thing. Candidates don't usually really run their campaigns and I assume Romney had little control over this. You and I of course disagree on this, but I think Obama has been an absolutely terrible leader despite his campaigns having been run very, very well both elections.
This being said, the buck does stop at the top and Romney should not have delegated so much to people who were such terrible managers. I don't think there's a lot of correlation between how a campaign is run and how effective a leader someone is if they are elected, but the buck does stop at the top and I do think Romney deserves blame for this nightmare.
Orca's failure can't be blamed just on Romney, but Romney picked his advisors and the crew that was to run orca.I think the problems with the software were several: it may not have been field tested enough, there was a top-down lack of training. so the field workers had to go upstream to get answers, and there weren't nearly enough people in the home office who were dedicated to answering the fields questions.
The whole thing was up and down. Obama's software might have not been as powerful, but his organization operated sideways as well as up and down. If someone needed help, help could be found in the office of a neighboring state, not the central office.
A big part of the fatal flaws were generational; Romney's voluteers took orders from above, and Obama's volunteers grouped up and solved problems from the field, using the top office much less. Today's youth are group joiners, not individuals who compete with each other.
Everything was exacerbated by the conservative echo chamber. By believing what they chose to believe over the facts, the delusion that they were ahead made everything all the worse.
Thank you for posting about this despite being an Obama supporter. I know you posted it to make fun of Romney, but I still thank you.
Anyone who actually took the time out of their lives to vote for Romney should be upset about this. Anyone who actually donated their money or time to help Romney get elected (myself included) should be livid about this fiasco. It's one thing to lose an election. It's quite another to lose an election when there is such a complete lack of effort and such utter incompetence coming from the campaign.
ORCA wasn't the only thing they did wrong, but they bet so much on it that they should have made sure it would work flawlessly. Instead the exact opposite happened. (Oh, and I don't think they even tested it at all.) What's even worse is that it wasn't just the technology. Did they just forget that people might need credentials to be poll observers?
Don't be too hard on mittens, "strike list" based GOTV on election day are a crap shoot. Chances of success and increased turnout are minor. My guess is their best efforts wouldn't have added 1/2% to their total anywhere. R's don't need prodding to vote like dems do.
Thank you for posting about this despite being an Obama supporter. I know you posted it to make fun of Romney, but I still thank you.
Anyone who actually took the time out of their lives to vote for Romney should be upset about this. Anyone who actually donated their money or time to help Romney get elected (myself included) should be livid about this fiasco. It's one thing to lose an election. It's quite another to lose an election when there is such a complete lack of effort and such utter incompetence coming from the campaign.
ORCA wasn't the only thing they did wrong, but they bet so much on it that they should have made sure it would work flawlessly. Instead the exact opposite happened. (Oh, and I don't think they even tested it at all.) What's even worse is that it wasn't just the technology. Did they just forget that people might need credentials to be poll observers?
I think hubris and overconfidence in the Romney campaign lead to ORCA not being taken seriously. It seems like the whole point of ORCA was to intimidate the Obama campaign rather than to be effectively used. As banjomike pointed out the conservative echo chamber lead to Republicans wanting to listen to and believe what sounded good to them, believing in "unskewed polls", etc. Such overconfidence even lead to a cancelled firworks show in Boston for Romney. As we saw it all gloriously backfired.
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