Robert Waldmann | March 17, 2013 11:14 pm
Ezra Klein has an even more interesting than usual column on feverish demand for the services of Obama campaign data wonks.
After Obama’s reelection, former adviser David Axelrod recalls that “one of the first calls I got was, ‘Who are the young geniuses? We want to find out if we can hire thwe”
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it’s the tech and digital specialists who’ve become the unexpected darlings of data-driven corporate America. “We saw the success and the importance of social and digital and wondered if we could apply the same types of principles to people who wanted to advocate on behalf of Ford,” says Scott Monty, global head of social media for the automaker.
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“It really doesn’t matter whether you’re running a political campaign or a marketing campaign — a campaign’s a campaign,” Monty says.
My first reaction to the article was schadenfreude. I am delighted that self described genius manager Mitt Romney came a distant second as the candidate whose campaign impressed people who don’t profit when the firms they control go bankrupt.
But then a thought ruined my fun. One very important change due to the Obama campaigns is that he found a way to raise huge amounts of money from ordinary people. I naively thought that this could weaken the hold of large firms and extremely rich individuals on politics.
Ah but capitalism is flexible. That’s one of its main advantages over other approaches to organizing society.
I am pleased that the hard working dedicated people who helped save the country from Romney are doing very well indeed. However, I fear that after four or eight years of doing very well indeed helping firms with marketing campaigns some well end up like Penn and Schoen — Democratic consultants who always argue that the way for Democrats to win elections is to do what pleases their other clients.
The Obama campaigns have been extremely disruptive, but I’d guess that a system which as adapted to oil shocks and financial crises will be able to deal with the disruption. I guess that they will keep on producing goods and services efficiently and will keep more power than they should have in a Democracy.
Or as Captain Renault would say, “I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”
Can we assume the appointment of Jack Lew was a disappointment?
Interesting because I would have thought the commercial private side would already by loaded up with such types considering a report on data collection I heard on NPR.
Seems some retailers have it down so good that a father (true story) call up the store and chewed out the manager for the storer having the gaul to suggest is teenage daugther was pregnant. Turns out the father called a second time to apologize. She was pregnant. All based on her purchasing pattern.
The store’s algorithm was written by #DrunkNateSilver
— it’s the tech and digital specialists who’ve become the unexpected darlings of data-driven corporate America. —
That would be Anonymous, ex-script kiddies, [who themselves might slip in anyway]. But Anon does not necessarily favor Dems, more anti-party-in-general
while not being Anarchist.
And Otherwise –
—Death rates were 5.5/1,000/year pre-invasion, and overall, 13.2/1,000/year for
the 40 months post-invasion. We estimate that through July 2006, there have
been 654,965 “excess deaths”—fatalities above the pre-invasion death rate—
in Iraq as a consequence of the war. Of post-invasion deaths, 601,027 were
due to violent causes. Non-violent deaths rose above the pre-invasion level
only in 2006. Since March 2003, an additional 2.5% of Iraq’s population have
died above what would have occurred without conflict.
The proportion of deaths ascribed to coalition forces has diminished in 2006,
though the actual numbers have increased each year.”