Pollsters Go To War

I sometimes wonder about pollsters and political consultants. That is, I wonder if they are rather like the financial Masters of the Universe whose mastery turns out, it seems, to have been somewhat exaggerated.

That’s not say there aren’t differences between well-run campaigns (Barack Obama) and lousy, ill-focused, foolish ones (Hillary Clinton), rather that the benefits of good political advice aren’t nearly so great as the damage caused by poor advice and ill-conceived strategy.

Hindsight is always useful, of course, but imagine how different the race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination might have been had the Clinton campaign remembered that it might be useful to compete seriously in caucus states. (Of course, they didn’t think this would matter: but that’s the point – there was no Plan B, no-one considering the question “What do we do if this doesn’t work?” There was, then, a tactical and a strategic failure.