Weird errors in Romneyland
by David Atkins
Obsessive Hullabaloo readers with photographic memories may remember my writing about Mitt Romney’s big lie, in which the Romney campaign sent me a snail mail letter commending me for being “one of America’s most notable Republicans”, and highlighting the damage that some vague deficit/debt monster has done the American economy. The Romney campaign has been telling that lie over and over again, including in direct mail to voters. Today I received an exact carbon copy of the very same letter.
Tomorrow I’ll write a little more about the content of the letter (again), but for now I have to ask what exactly is going on in Romneyland. As a research/branding guy and seasonal campaign worker, I understand the value of consistent messaging. But sending out an exact carbon copy of the same fundraising letter the campaign sent out exactly a month earlier isn’t exactly professional. It has an air of laziness, especially if the appeal didn’t work the first time (which it obviously didn’t.)
Second, one has to wonder how exactly these mailing lists are being created. Lots of people around the country are presumably getting these mailers, including hardcore progressives, based on a variety of demographic selection criteria. Perhaps I receive them simply by virtue of being a small business owner.
But presumably the campaign would have some sort of exclusion criteria in place to reduce costs, so that Van Jones and Barbara Boxer wouldn’t get Mitt’s mail. Presumably the easily accessible lists of elected Democratic officials and State and County executive board members would be part of the exclusion: it would seem to be a pretty simple and safe place to start, reducing mail costs by at least tens of thousands of dollars per shot. A microtargeting operation as professional and successful as the Republicans’ could crunch that with supreme ease.
It speaks to an insouciant carelessness in the entire Romney operation that ignores a lot of the details, figuring that they can be papered over with a jet stream of endless cash.
Maybe they’re right and maybe they’re wrong. But the last thing it smacks of is fiscal conservatism.
.