Tories hire Messina, Labour hire The Axe

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Two of the top operatives from the Obama campaigns are coming to the UK to help the major parties at the 2015 General Election.

Messina is a nerdy genius who masterminded the '12 campaign and had his finger on the pulse right up to election night. He's a major asset for the Tories IMO. Axe is Axe, a great political operator.

Make sure we get em both back for Hillary 16!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-23551323


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27062278

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dandarez said:

Yeah, just been listening to that on the news.

Another reason for me to vote UKIP.

Good idea. Why cast your vote when you can throw it away?

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powerstroke said:

Spin over substance and policy's , just what we need !!!!

Messina isn't a spinner. He's a very skilled operator who understands how a campaign works and runs a great ground game. In '12 when Romney's people were confident they were going to win the pivotal states he knew they were not. He knew down to individual streets how the vote was rolling and he was spot on. In fact the ground game he ran was so good that while Romney was genuinely shocked not to win, Obama didn't even campaign the last day because they knew they had it won.

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jmorgan said:

How well do they know UK politics. Spin is spin but are we going to hear advice along the lines of
"Detroit is ours Mr Milliband"
"Detroit?! we are talking about Croydon"
"Croydon?"

Nah, it's the Axe dealing with Labour. It'll be more like;

"Croydon? You're worried about fking Croydon? Listen to me you snivelling little st. You win nothing cowering down there hoping your big brother's gonna show up and save your punk ass. If you wanna beat this toff prick Cameron you need to show some spunk you spinless pissant. etc......"

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BlackLabel said:

The team who ran Obama's digital campaign, both in 2008 and 2012 were the real geniuses imo.

Messina ran the whole thing in '12. He also runs OFA which has been a great grass roots fundraising operation, of which I am a founding member.

The '08 campaign set new standards in how to raise money and organise at a grass roots level. We went to a rally during that campaign. At the time I was still living in the UK but was visiting. The rally was only announced the day before as Obama had to change his schedule as his Grandmother was dying. They asked everyone who was coming (35,000 turned up - in a red state) to let them know by email that they planned to attend. We received an email every day after that, some asking for $5, some giving information and some asking for help. As a result of that sort of info gathering they had over 1,000,000 volunteers out on the ground on election day and raised a staggering amount of money in very tiny increments.

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jmorgan said:

I heard one Labour lackey rolled out for the sound bite for this fella from the US exclaim shock and horror at the thought that this was all about spin as suggested by the reporter, it was about the issues don't you know.

Neither of this guys are spin doctors in the Campbell sense. Axelrod is a strategist, someone who helps to formulate and execute policy. Messina is a great project guy, as in planning and executing an election.

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dandarez said:

unrepentant said:

dandarez said:

Yeah, just been listening to that on the news.

Another reason for me to vote UKIP.

Good idea. Why cast your vote when you can throw it away?

Ha ha. Thanks for that sound advice.
I've lived long enough to make my own choices, thanks.

PS
Come back and check here on 8th May 2015, and see if I was alone in throwing my vote away.

Everyone is entitled to vote however they please of course. A vote for UKIP in a general election though is at best pointless and at worst a vote for Labour. In a Euro election it's a good tactical move to stick it to both main parties but in a general not so much. All IMHO of course.