A Team of Dunces
First, after listening to Stuart Stevens, it is clear that this man is clearly out of his league. He doesn't even sound as smart as Bob Shrum. Second, it is clear that the Romney team doesn't have a good grasp of modern politics.
They all sound like Washington pundits and not campaign managers. And that is the Romney Campaign's basic flaw.
After listening to the Harvard Forums, I know exactly why the Romney Campaign had circles run around them by the Obama Campaign. They still run campaigns like its 1980. The Republican consultant class are nothing more than pundits working as grifters.
I listened to the contrast in how the Obama Campaign and how the Romney Campaign operated. The Obama Campaign staff constantly talked about voters. Constantly. They talked about voters damn near every opportunity they spoke. They thought about voters. They focused non stop on voters. Voters. Voters. Voters. And because of that, every single person on that team talked about their campaign within the context of winning voters. I mean at every term that is all that mattered to them.
The Romney Campaign, in really stark contrast, is constantly talking about media themes or themselves. They saw the campaign at 40,000 feet. It is always about crazy concepts: "big ideas" "vision" "chemistry" "passion" none of which are invaluable things. But they have nothing to do with what motivates the modern 21st century voter. The Romney Campaign literally believed they were going to recreate the 1980 Reagan Campaign. They talked and sounded like Washington pundits. The Obama Campaign sounded and talked like engineers.
The Obama Campaign high command left all the high minded concepts where they belonged: in the hands of the candidate. Campaign staff is not there to do the things the candidate is supposed to do. But the Romney Campaign side, they were constantly trying to use campaign tactics to do the things only a candidate can do.
The results speak for themselves.
Tue Dec 04, 2012 at 5:52 AM PT: I sent a letter to the Harvard Institute of Politics this morning. Short and sweet:
"Next time you do this, please do not ever invite the Washington media establishment or the Washington pundits to handle the questions. The questions were completely mindless. Instead, invite some leading academics. Like those at Harvard."