Live from the Roasterie: You do get the feeling that nobody working at Politico--certainly not Eli Stokols or Marc Caputo--has any idea what a "serious" policy proposal might be. Campaigns churn out broad directions and talking points. Democratic campaigns try pretty hard to make the broad directions and talking points consistent with reality because they want them validated by those outside who really know the details of the issues. Republican campaigns by and large do not care about making their broad directions and talking points consistent with reality--they know those outside who want inside jobs will be willing to say whatever is needed to make the candidate sound good;
: The Soft Bigotry of No Expectations: "(Trigger Warning: Politico link [by Eli Stokols and Marc Caputo)
Bush can tweak his message on a day to day basis, cut costs around the margins and even reduce or reallocate staff. But he remains committed to the large campaign infrastructure he has built to run a national campaign, staff members say. What’s changed is the desire to avoid any appearance of extravagence… the campaign’s early state organizations do surpass those of most rivals, Bush’s other major investments--in paid advertising and a policy shop that’s churning out his speeches--have yet to pay real dividends…. Bush is also pitching serious policy proposals. He has close to 10 staffers working in his campaign’s policy shop
The ‘wonky’, ‘serious’, ‘smart’, ‘technocratic’ Republican campaign is making ‘major’ investments in his policy shop. That major investment is under 10 full time employees. I am betting it is eight or nine people including the 23 year old making $23,000 to buy binders, collate TPS reports and fetch coffee. It costs the Bush campaign under $1 million a quarter (my bet is under $300K/quarter) or the price of a mid-level fundraising manager.
Truly the soft bigotry of no expectations of policy competence is at play here.
