McCain's Web Campaign: Worst Ever?

It's at least reassuring from this Weekly Standard piece that the McCain camp did use email, internally. In July, I was on one of their blogger conference calls.

The day after McCain's loss, these three McCain aides could not get beyond the campaign--in large part because of the frenzied postelection finger-pointing among their bosses. For months, McCain's staff received emailed "news alerts" with virtually every mention of the candidate or the campaign--receiving sometimes hundreds in an hour. After McCain's concession speech, the alerts slowed to a trickle.

Sometime after the conference call I followed up with the campaign and asked what I thought was a legitimate question. Did the campaign have a response to some conservatives who might feel that McCain is not genuinely conservative, or perhaps as true to form in being the "Reagan foot soldier" he was invoking from time to time?

I received a terse one line response, "John McCain has always considered himself a conservative," or words to that effect.

For whatever reason, that was the last conference call to which I received an invite.

I also reached out to the campaign and asked if, because I do some blogging related to the auto industry, (Michigan was still very much in play) - was there anything we might be able to do together in that regard. I offered to help get out anything that might speak to that particular automobile-related audience I could through a grass roots effort via a blog.

There was one positive phone call suggesting just how much they wanted to use new media and blogs to reach out to as many people as possible and, of course they'd be glad to work together in some form.

That was the last I ever heard of that.

Throughout the campaign it seemed clear they were doing some reach out to blogs, which blogs and for what reasons I have no idea. But it at least looked to me as if they chose a narrow reach-out model. Maybe they thought some limited number of higher traffic blogs would give them all they needed, or wanted from the blogosphere.

Whatever the case, it's also now clear that, at the same time, Obama's team was reaching out to everyone and everything, again and again, to good effect.

In any event, having been a blogger through several two-year election cycles now, I'd have to agree with a DC PR pro I was speaking with the other day. McCain's Internet outreach initiative was probably the worst I've ever seen since the whole merging of politics, blogging and the Internet began.

Whether it would be pivotal, or not, might be arguable. But I strongly suspect no future campaign for the Presidency of the United States will be successful if it ever even appears to be as bad at Internet out reach as was McCain's.

Comments

[jharp]

To me McCain poor campaign was a result of having losing positions on every single issue. How do you run a good web campaign in a situation like that.

Though I assign 100% of the blame for the Palin pick on him.

What could he possibly have been thinking? There were plenty of capable republicans out there. And he picked a hick redneck buffoon mayor of a town of 7,000 and 1 year governor of a state with 600,000? Then hides her from the press?

Has to be the worst VP choice in the history of our country.

[Dan Riehl]

Think what you want, jharp - but you're wrong on Palin. The Left should get over their obsession with her. VP picks don't turn races.

Hell, Obama picked a complete moron who has been wrong on every foreign policy decision throughout his career - including on Russia.

He made npo difference one way or the other either. Excvept maybe the extra hands it to to keep him off the road and quiet as much as possible,

[templar knight]

Dan, this campaign will be known for three things, in this order:

1. The first black man was elected President.
2. Almost the entire media was in the tank for Obama.
3. The massive amount of fundraising fraud on the part of the Obama Campaign.

I'm sure the Democrats will seek to address #3 in an effort to keep Republicans from ever being able to do the same thing. Bet ya' a thousand dollars.

[jharp]

Dan,

You and I will have to agree to disagree on Palin.

And the polls favor my position. VP picks often don't matter I agree. But McCain was 72 and the question of his being incapacitated and Palin taking over mattered this time.

And to compare the know how and brains and experience of Biden and Palin is no contest.

Palin didn't even know the duties of the VP fer christsakes. Something most learn in high school.

[skeptical]

New media hasn't been around very long, so no surprise that there was no real effort from campaign operatives who don't know what it is. But the contrast with the Obama campaign couldn't be more stark. In addition to their web presence, they were texting supporters, friending, and tweeting them at every step. Whether that contributed to the youth vote going two thirds Obama or not, it certainly kept them engaged.

I buy the polls that show Palin was a net loss in terms of numbers, and I also buy the conservative reports that she ignited fundamentalists to get out when they might have stayed home, and volunteer when they might not have, but the volunteer ground game was lousy on the McCain side. Polls also showed that the tens of thousands who came out to see Palin didn't always vote for her, nor did they come out in those numbers to volunteer. Obama understood and had the ground game lined up strong enough to beat Clinton all during the primaries and McCain right across the country. Lousy campaign. He'd have done better to keep the Rovians away, and run as the old Mac.

[templar knight]

"Something most learn in high school."

Bullshit. I doubt whether three in ten high school graduates could tell you the duties of the VP. Liberals and the liberal media hated Palin because she was a social conservative and an evangelical Christian. McCain probably picked her because he was perceived as neither, and felt that he needed to balance his ticket in order to maximize that particular segment of the Republican Party, and frankly, she energized his campaign. The massive crowds she attracted was proof of that.

That more than anything scared the liberals shitless, thus leading to the immediate attacks by the liberal media. Every form of tabloid journalism was used by media that should have been better. The one good thing that came out of this campaign was the fact that the media exposed itself as biased. No one can doubt that now, as the baseless reporting on Palin opened the eyes of anyone who is even halfway objective.

[Lala]

SARAH PALIN VINDICATED BY THE PLUM BOOK?

quote

It should be noted that no jobs will be listed in the book for the office of the vice president. A spokesman for the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Reform explained that the vice president's office is technically neither part of the executive or legislative branch.

unquote

It certainly doesn't support Joe Biden's claim that the VP is clearly part of the executive branch, does it ? I'm still standing by my take, though.
posted at 06:48 PM by Glenn Reynolds

Is Dick Cheney Unconstitutional? (Final Version)

Glenn Harlan Reynolds
University of Tennessee College of Law

Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 102, 2007

Abstract:
During a recent policy kerfuffle, Vice President Dick Cheney's office briefly argued that the Vice President is really a legislative official, and hence not subject to some obligations of the Executive branch. Though Cheney's office quickly shifted its argument to less controversial statutory grounds, it turns out that the Vice Presidency's legislative character is, in fact, quite significant. To the extent that the Vice President is a legislative official, however, it is likely that extensive delegation of Presidential authority to the Vice President, of the sort that Vice President Cheney has enjoyed, is probably unconstitutional and certainly unwise. This Essay argues for congressional action to limit the Vice President's role in Executive business.

Keywords: cheney, bowsher, vice president, separation of powers, legislative, executive
Accepted Paper Series
Date posted: November 12, 2007 ; Last revised: November 12, 2007
Suggested Citation

[mary]

The republicans during the rove regime had to have had a data base and ways to communicate with the public via their computers. Always thought that there was no love lost between GWB and McCain despite what the dems wanted you to think. I suspect that the rove regime didn't provide the McCain campaign with the data base. The Obama campaign looked totally rovian to me. Since Washington is a "I work for the guy who give me the paycheck" town, it is conceivable that Obama got consulting from rove and that McCain probably didn't.

[Dennis D]

Would it not be easier for Obama since ( Correct me if wrong) Huffington and DailyKos are much bigger blogs than any conservative site? We are spread out and they more concentrated.

[Dennis D]

Joe Biden is the one who BLEW the question on the Vice President during the debates.
IFILL: Vice President Cheney's interpretation of the vice presidency?

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

****Of course Article 1 is the Legislative and does not place the President in the Executive Branch. I believe this was the worst GAFFE of any Vice Presidential Debate in recent history..

[Dion]

jharp must have graduated from the same school as Diantha Harris--the Saul Alinsky School of Sophistry and Trotskyism.

[davis,br]

"I suspect that the rove regime didn't provide the McCain campaign with the data base."

Mary? They know you wrote this. And they know your trackback IP. They are looking for you. Yes. Them. You know the ones. I saw a black helicopter hovering near your back door recently. And that plumbing van? - Yep. Not plumbers at all. Be very worried. Run, even ...if you think it will do you any good.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Whoever, whatever, was running John McCains campaign had no clue. That is a fact.
Every website all over the net had ads for Obama on it. He was like in your face no matter where you went to read things or look up stuff.
I could not believe it when I began to see all this. Unreal. I hardly ever saw anything on McCain.

Sarah Palin was the only highlight of his campaign. She was a pretty lady with a sparkling voice and people came out in droves to see her, so don't anyone say it was her that caused him to lose. If you do then you are a jealous foolish liar.

McCain was outspent by 650,000,000.00 to 84,000,000.00. So you can hardly compete with that.

With that being said, the republican party, even though they lost didn't really lose by that much when you think about it. With that much money difference you would have thought it would have been worse. This country still is divided almost equally. The final tally is not in yet. Last I saw it was 52 to 48 or something like that.

The repubilcans will regroup and have learned a lot I HOPE about advertising in all fields, phone banks, website advertising, door to door, you name it. If they start now getting ready for 2012, they may launch something even better than Obama did. WE WILL SEE. Hope so !

[Graziana Fury]

I totally agree. I was going crazy trying to reach their campaign to volunteer, since like May. I sent a million emails. I sent resumes. I got one call from one guy, who never contacted me again. Then, a few months later I called him again and got an email from a woman who was more interested. Unfortunately, there was no McCain campaign HQ in New York State!!! Can you believe that? She was in New Jersey.

I did use the McCain online phone bank, but it was exclusively landlines. Most people I reached were older and were voting for McCain. (Except for a few people who told me I was being "divisive" by calling them.) I didn't have much confidence in the online phone bank system, either.

[mary]

"I suspect that the rove regime didn't provide the McCain campaign with the data base."

Mary? They know you wrote this. And they know your trackback IP. They are looking for you. Yes. Them. You know the ones. I saw a black helicopter hovering near your back door recently. And that plumbing van? - Yep. Not plumbers at all. Be very worried. Run, even ...if you think it will do you any good.

Posted by: davis,br | Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 09:59 PM

oh Geez, what am I the only person thinking this stuff out? What is the point of enjoying talking about politics if you can't explore every possibility? You don't think there aren't already people writing books that will consider every single angle? This was a historic campaign in more ways than one. People who think, people who enjoy politics, are going to ruminate. That is the American way. Besides I was addicted to Rove's website during the campaign so I'm sure he would laugh at my comment since it is complimentary as BO did win. Four years makes a big difference, GWB may have given them all the information they had but, up against the very personal internet, facebook, email, cell phone campaign of BO, they just didn't cut it as they didn't see it coming. Who knows what will happen with tech in the next 4 years. The candidate could literally be standing in your living room in 3D answering your own personal questions. The fact remains that guys like Rove think it all out, know what you are going to do before you do. The successful candidate in the future will tweak a Rovian model.

Would not any of you be curious to read a book by Rove talking about the difference in the two GWB campaigns? Would you not like to read a book comparing those campaigns to the BO campaign? As a political junkee I know I would.

[DavidL]

The republicans lost when they allowed democrats to pick the party nominee. Don't run RINO's for President. Abolish the open primary.

[Fred Beloit]

Harpo and some others have used the word "landslide" to describe this election, possibly because of the lopsided electoral votes. Here is where you can see some real popular vote and electoral vote landslides. Examples:
"* In 1980, the first election I seriously paid attention to, Ronald Reagan’s 50.75% of the vote gave him a 9.25% margin over Jimmy Carter, with 41.01%, with Republican sore loser John Anderson getting 6.61%. That translated into an Electoral College landslide of 489-49.
* In 1984, Reagan beat Walter Mondale 58.77% to 40.56% to get an Electoral College landslide of 525 to 13, with Mondale winning only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.
* In 1988, George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis 53.37% to 45.65% and won the Electoral vote 426 to 111.
* In 1992, Bill Clinton beat Bush 43.01 to 37.45, with Ross Perot getting 18.91% and finished with an Electoral College margin of 370 to 168."

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/obamas_landslide/

[Fred Beloit]

A quote from Harpo: "A black and THE most LIBERAL Senator has just won in a landslide? And his name? Hussein Obama!"

Compare the results with the above to determine whether this election was a landslide. From Wiki:

Candidate-------Party-----------Home state------Popular vote----Electoral

Barack Obama----Democratic------Illinois--------65,412,231------52.6%---365

John McCain-----Republican------Arizona---------57,414,049------46.1%---162

[Worst President Ever]

Any of the major Republican candidates - Mitt, Rudy, Huck, etc. - would have lost. Partly because they're all flawed, partly because they're Republican when everything's stacked against the party. It wasn't just McCain that lost, Republicans lost seats in the Senate and the House in BIG numbers for the SECOND election cycle in a row. Americans simply don't like what the Republicans have done in the last eight years.

[Fred Beloit]

Six years. The last two are under your proud Congress's ownership.