A GOP mythology developing over the past two decades has finally come to fruition with the selection of Romney as the candidate for president. For anyone keeping things in perspective, it should be obvious that talking points are just that -- they are meant to show facts in a certain light, make GOP ideology appear palatable to an average American.
What was not supposed to happen is for the GOP to begin believing its own talking points. After all, they are meant to delude the public, right? Not meant to actually represent reality.
And so, voila, in Romney we have the result of decades of self-delusion. To wit,
CEOs are really competent people who actually deserve all the high pay and bonuses they get. That is because they know how to run a company and create jobs for the lesser creatures like us. And if jobs need to be cut or outsourced -- well, they know what's best. Even if someone else's job gets canned, its for the greater economic good. Enter Romney... the quintessential CEO it would seem... now here's a fresh change -- he would show them how campaigns are run. He will demonstrate all that business sense and acumen CEOs are known to have. Obama may just as well give it all up right now, the poor man. He would never know what hit him.
Reality check: Romney has done an excellent job of running his campaign like a CEO would run a corporation. Specifically, it would seem that the top echelon of campaign advisers are really well compensated to the detriment of, well, everyone else. This LA Times story is really eye-opening. Oh, and let's not forget the BONUSES the Romney campaign paid to its top staffers after the RNC. Very much in line with corporate culture where you pay bonuses just because... Used to be they were related to actual performance.
In Barbara Ehrenreich's excellent book, Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2009), an entire chapter is devoted to the fact that the latest fad in corporate culture is to hire management and life-style gurus to promote positive thinking and advise the CEOs on, in effect, dispensing with reality when making decisions -- by being as "bold" and outrageous as they can. And, lo and behold, we have the now widely circulated Politico story about Stuart Stevens, the guru at the center of the Romney campaign who thought inviting Clint Eastwood to speak in prime time on the last night of the RNC without vetting his speech was a brilliant idea. Well, we all know how well that turned out. Oh, and in case you missed it, check this out and have another laugh.
Oh, corporations also focus relentlessly on making money. And so it would appear Candidate Romney has been doing too much fundraising and not enough campaigning. Of course, that may just be because in another sign that the Romney campaign is the mongrel offspring of corporate culture and rich-guy snobbery, it would appear that the campaign was in financial trouble while presenting a false picture of its fundraising success. Enron anyone?
Like any good CEO, Romney believes in the power of money. So, instead of campaigning like, you know, presidential candidates are supposed to do, the Romney campaign and its PAC allies were going to carpet-bomb President Obama with ads in the swing states and, in effect, BUY the election. Of course, that was when in a delicious instance of of buying their own propaganda, they actually thought they had the money to do it.
And finally, outsourcing. Buried in that same LA Times story is a revealing tidbid that deserves to be quoted in full:
The Romney campaign has taken a different tack. It is relying on the Republican National Committee for the bulk of its voter registration and mobilization program this fall.
So there you have it -- ground game operations are expensive, you know. They require know-how and much investment. So we they will not worry about them and just outsource the whole thing to the RNC. Of course, this other part can't be helpful:
The RNC appears to have a smaller staff than the Democratic National Committee.
Or the fact that
as the Hill puts it quite unequivocally, the Obama campaign holds the ground-game advantage as early voting has begun.
Well... there may a last resort for Team Romney: Blame the competition. I kid you not, Romney is now blaming President Obama that his campaign sucks. Maybe they can file a lawsuit, a la Apple vs Samsung, and have the court order the other guy to, you know, stop winning so much.