James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories should move all their MPs to Witney or Tatton

One of the underappreciated factors in Obama’s success is that his campaign was not based in the Washington area. This meant there were fewer journalists around, fewer bits of gossip were picked up in bars and restaurants and those who moved to Chicago to work for the campaign were focused on getting Obama elected and not worried about protecting their own reputations among the political and journalistic elite. It all aided the ‘No drama with Obama’ mantra and meant that when he hit a rocky patch the effect wasn’t amplified by a string of stories filled with blind quotes from staffers about worries within the campaign. By contrast, when the Clinton and McCain campaigns ran into trouble there were a slew of stories about who was to blame. In both cases, the campaign post-mortems began look before either candidate had actually lost.

The Westminster Village has the same feedback effect.

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