Ruffini offers up compliment
February 27, 2008 by Rett Hatcher
A nice word from Ruffini…
So, the candidates decided to subsist instead on a third generation copy of the Bush machine rather than the more nimble, guerilla-style, network-warfare style campaign that an open field called for. This was the result.
- John McCain 1.0, broke and left for dead
- Mitt Romney spending $50 million of his sons’ inheritance on a failed makeover attempt destined to fail in an era of reality TV and YouTube
- Rudy Giuliani spending so much time fundraising at high dollar events that he couldn’t campaign in his natural breakout state, New Hampshire
- Fred Thompson turning back on his initial instinct to be the savvy net-warrior to wage a cookie cutter Washington campaign
Put all the pieces together, and you have a coherent narrative about how turning away from a grassroots, authentic, new media-ish campaign turned out to be fatal or nearly fatal for each of these campaigns. And in the redemption of John McCain and in the frustrating success of Mike Huckabee’s shoestring campaign, you will find a compelling story about the triumph of lean, word-of-mouth, buzz-driven campaigns.
