Just Tuning In
2012-07-10 - by
When you’re running a political campaign, it’s hard to keep your perspective. It’s especially hard to remember that not everybody is paying as much attention as you are. Even worse, the voters who count the most – the truly undecided voters – aren’t paying any attention yet.
Harrison Hickman, who was Governor Hunt’s pollster in 1992 and 1996, summed it up best. We had just done some eye-opening focus groups with undecided voters. We realized they hadn’t heard about 80 percent of what our campaign had been saying for weeks.
Harrison said: “We talk a lot faster than they listen.”
That’s why it’s hard for caffeine-addled, news-addicted, Twitter-fed political junkies to realize that at this point many voters have only the sketchiest idea of who Mitt Romney is, what he’s done, what he believes and, even, what he looks like.
As for Pat McCrory and Walter Dalton: Who?
It’s even worse for the poor souls running in this month’s runoff primary. For all practical purposes, they don’t exist.
Until you – or your opponent – spend several million dollars putting your face on TV, nobody will recognize you at Wendy’s.
Posted in General
Just Tuning In
2012-07-10/
When you’re running a political campaign, it’s hard to keep your perspective. It’s especially hard to remember that not everybody is paying as much attention as you are. Even worse, the voters who count the most – the truly undecided voters – aren’t paying any attention yet.
Harrison Hickman, who was Governor Hunt’s pollster in 1992 and 1996, summed it up best. We had just done some eye-opening focus groups with undecided voters. We realized they hadn’t heard about 80 percent of what our campaign had been saying for weeks.
Harrison said: “We talk a lot faster than they listen.”
That’s why it’s hard for caffeine-addled, news-addicted, Twitter-fed political junkies to realize that at this point many voters have only the sketchiest idea of who Mitt Romney is, what he’s done, what he believes and, even, what he looks like.
As for Pat McCrory and Walter Dalton: Who?
It’s even worse for the poor souls running in this month’s runoff primary. For all practical purposes, they don’t exist.
Until you – or your opponent – spend several million dollars putting your face on TV, nobody will recognize you at Wendy’s.
Posted in General