“The fish rots from the head; hence Romney’s team is hapless.”
“Obama has dominated the airwaves in key battleground states, while Romney is flailing at times. In addition, Obama’s field operation will yield dividends during get-out-the-vote.”
“Effective campaign teams don’t vent to the press.”
“Obama ground game unmatched. Romney election strategy, with fading message, has been reduced to voter suppression.”
“Tough one—neither is lighting up the scoreboard, but home team gets the nod.”
“Obama Staff = Apple+Google. Romney Staff = Microsoft+Yahoo!”
“Team Romney is becoming a circular firing squad. If he blows the first debate, the congressional wing will pull the money out, and that’s it for Romney.”
“It would appear Obama, although it is unfair to blame many of Romney’s ‘open mouth, change feet’ performances on his team.
And Romney picked the radioactive Ryan; his team didn’t.”
“Team Romney is the Boston Red Sox of politics. Looks great on paper, keeps making mistakes on the field, and the leader keeps saying stupid things.”
“Haven’t heard anyone calling to fire [campaign manager Jim] Messina.”
Romney
“To get this close with that level of lies takes some doing.”
“Mitt has the best team. Unfortunately, they have the worst candidate.”
Which candidate has the more effective campaign team?
REPUBLICANS (98 VOTES)
Barack Obama: 80%
Mitt Romney: 20%
Obama
“Unemployment above 8 percent and the debt over $16 trillion, and we are still losing? Enough said.”
“Pistons are all firing in sync in Chicago.”
“The Obama team is not as effective as they think, but Romney’s is not as effective as the American electorate deserves.”
“Messina, Axelrod, and the rest are pirates who leave no survivors and I’d take across the high seas any day.”
“Duh.”
“When a campaign should be losing but isn’t, then you have to say the team is effective.”
“By far. Too bad his economic team wasn’t as good.”
“Romney’s campaign has done a great job doing the blocking and tackling, but the problem has been on the strategic end. They failed to understand that running a referendum campaign still means you have to define yourself in order to be a viable alternative.”
“It would be hard for any competitive presidential campaign to be less effective than that of Mitt Romney.”
“Romney’s team may be liable for malpractice.”
“Campaigns matter. If they didn’t, anybody with this record would be cooked.”
“Practice makes perfect.”
Romney
“They defeated a multicandidate field in a grueling nomination fight. They are going to raise close to $1 billion, and they are neck and neck against a popular incumbent with the [mainstream media] in his pocket.”
“How effective would Obama’s team be if 90 percent of our media outlets were in the tank for Romney instead of their guy?”
“They’re hungrier.”
“The Chicago crybabies have spent $100 million more than the Beantown boys and they can’t top 50 percent. Pucker time!”
______________
Democratic Political Insiders Jill Alper, John Anzalone, Brad Bannon, Dave Beattie, Andy Bechhoefer, Cornell Belcher, Matt Bennett, Mitchell W. Berger, Mike Berman, Stephanie Bosh, Paul Brathwaite, Donna Brazile, Mark Brewer, Ed Bruley, George Bruno, Bonnie Campbell, Bill Carrick, Guy Cecil, Martin J. Chavez, Tony Coelho, Larry Cohen, Jerry Crawford, Brendan Daly, Jeff Danielson, Peter Daou, Howard Dean, Scott DeFife, Jim Demers, Tad Devine, David Di Martino, Debbie Dingell, Monica Dixon, Patrick Dorton, Pat Dujakovich, Anita Dunn, Jeff Eller, Steve Elmendorf, Carter Eskew, Vic Fazio, Peter Fenn, Scott Ferson, Jim Fleischmann, Tina Flournoy, Don Foley, Jeffrey Forbes, Vincent Frillici, Gina Glantz, Niles Godes, John Michael Gonzalez, Joe Grandmaison, Anna Greenberg, Stan Greenberg, Pat Griffin, Larry Grisolano, Michael Gronstal, Lisa Grove, Marcia Hale, Jill Hanauer, Dick Harpootlian, Paul Harstad, Laura Hartigan, Doug Hattaway, Mike Henry, Karen Hicks, Leo Hindery Jr., Harold Ickes, Marcus Jadotte, John Jameson, Steve Jarding, Jonathon Jones, Jim Jordan, Gale Kaufman, Lisa Kountoupes, Celinda Lake, David Lang, Penny Lee, Chris Lehane, Jeff Link, Bob Maloney, Jim Manley, Steve Marchand, Jim Margolis, Paul Maslin, Keith Mason, Susan McCue, Gerald McEntee, Steve McMahon, Tom McMahon, Phil McNamara, David Medina, Michael Meehan, Mark Mellman, John Merrigan, Michael Monroe, Steve Murphy, Janet Napolitano, David Nassar, Marcia Nichols, John Norris, Tom Ochs, Tom O’Donnell, Jeffrey Peck, Debora Pignatelli, Tony Podesta, Jefrey Pollock, Jack Quinn, Larry Rasky, Mame Reiley, Ed Rendell, Steve Ricchetti, Will Robinson, Steve Rosenthal, David Rudd, Ryan Rudominer, John Ryan, Michael Sargeant, Stephanie Schriock, Terry Shumaker, Sean Sinclair, Phil Singer, Erik Smith, Doug Sosnik, Greg Speed, Darry Sragow, Ken Strasma, Doug Thornell, Jeffrey Trammell, Ed Turlington, Rick Wiener, James Williams, JoDee Winterhof, Brian Wolff, Jon Youngdahl, and Jim Zogby.
GOP Political Insiders Dan Allen, Stan Anderson, Gary Andres, Saulius (Saul) Anuzis, Rich Ashooh, Whit Ayres, Brett Bader, Mitch Bainwol, Brian Baker, Gary Bauer, David Beckwith, Paul Bennecke, Clark Benson, Wayne Berman, Brian Bieron, Charlie Black, Kirk Blalock, Carmine Boal, Jeff Boeyink, Ron Bonjean, Jeff Buley, Luke Byars, Nick Calio, Al Cardenas, Danny Carroll, Alex Castellanos, Ron Christie, Jim Cicconi, Jonathan Collegio, Rob Collins, Cesar Conda, Jake Corman, Scott Cottington, Jay Cranford, Greg Crist, Diane Crookham-Johnson, Fergus Cullen, Tom Davis, Mike Dennehy, Ken Duberstein, Debi Durham, Sara Fagen, Frank Fahrenkopf, John Feehery, Don Fierce, Mindy Finn, Carl Forti, Alex Gage, Bruce A. Gates, Sam Geduldig, Adam Geller, Benjamin Ginsberg, David Girard-diCarlo, Bill Greener, Jonathan Grella, Lanny Griffith, Janet Mullins Grissom, Doug Gross, Todd Harris, Steve Hart, Christopher Healy, Ralph Hellmann, Chris Henick, Terry Holt, David Iannelli, Ed Ingle, Jim Innocenzi, Clark Judge, David Keating, David Kensinger, Bob Kjellander, Ed Kutler, Chris LaCivita, Jim Lake, Steven Law, Steve Lombardo, Kevin Madden, Joel Maiola, Gary Maloney, David Marin, Mary Matalin, Dan Mattoon, Brian McCormack, Mark McKinnon, Kyle McSlarrow, Ken Mehlman, Jim Merrill, Lisa Camooso Miller, Tim Morrison, Mike Murphy, Phil Musser, Ron Nehring, Terry Nelson, Neil Newhouse, David Norcross, Ziad Ojakli, Jack Oliver, Todd Olsen, Kevin O’Neill, Connie Partoyan, Billy Piper, Van B. Poole, Tom Rath, Scott Reed, David Rehr, Tom Reynolds, Steve Roberts, Jason Roe, David Roederer, Dan Schnur, Russ Schriefer, Rich Schwarm, Brent Seaborn, Rick Shelby, Andrew Shore, Kevin Shuvalov, Don Sipple, Ken Spain, Fred Steeper, Bob Stevenson, Terry Sullivan, David Tamasi, Eric Tanenblatt, Richard Temple, Heath Thompson, Jay Timmons, Warren Tompkins, Ted Van Der Meid, Dirk van Dongen, Jan van Lohuizen, Stewart Verdery, Dick Wadhams, John Weaver, Lezlee Westine, Dave Winston, Ginny Wolfe, Fred Wszolek, and Matthew Zablud.
This article appears in the Sep. 22, 2012, edition of National Journal.
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