Thursday, November 30, 2006

A Bit More From This Morning   [Jonathan Martin]

A few other final notes from the plenary sessions this a.m. at the RGA.

• I'd echo what Kate said about the paucity of Iraq talk and add that there was seemingly a consensus on the political panel (comprised of mostly consultants and pollsters) that Democrats didn't so much win this past cycle as the GOP lost.  Or, as former RNC political director and strategist Curt Anderson put it, the Dems "were almost not relevant to this election."  
• There was also much praise for the GOP's 72-Hour Program from the panel.  Consultant Alex Gage said "the ground game kept the water on the first floor," and limiting the number of Democratic pick-up's.   Pollster Neil Newhouse agreed, saying the "damage could've been much worse" without such a well-oiled GOTV effort.  The problem, Gage said, was not in getting Republicans to the polls, but among the independent voters. 
• The panelists also were largely in agreement that Republicans are lagging on taking advantage of the internet and bloggers.  Newhouse, who polled for Sen. Joe Lieberman after the Dem-turned-Independent lost his primary, recalled how they'd get "daily email updates about what the bloggers were saying."  In Republican campaigns, Newhouse said, "we had none of that."   Consultant Russ Schreifer noted how some of his clients would ask where the GOP version was of the joint fundraising liberal bloggers did for favored candidates.   Schreifer also recognized how the blogs had become not just fundraising outlets, but also unfiltered mediums for oppositiion research.  Democrats did a better job, he said, of putting out such oppo online as a way of getting it into the media's bloodstream.  And by the time the MSM got it, the DCCC already had the ads cued up. 

11/30 03:06 PMShare