Among them was Stuart Rothenberg, whose comments regarding Schiff’s candidacy reveal the enormous gap that separates the real world from Washington D.C.
Schiff told Mr. Rothenberg that he had no interest in formulating his views to appeal to the greatest number of voters.
Instead, his strategy, if you could call it that, involved running on a set of core beliefs, regardless of whether such a philosophy would produce a victory.
Contempt of the political “game” instantly qualified Schiff as a laughingstock in Mr. Rothenberg’s eyes, who referred to Schiff as the “Cockiest Candidate of the Year,” in his magazine.
Commitment to principles is so rare in Washington, it’s no wonder Mr. Rothenberg was shocked by it. His game is to win votes by gaming the voters.
• A candidate hires a polling firm to discover the buzzwords and simple campaign themes that “resonate” among voters.
• Consultants then boil down the poll results to a few “winning” message points.
• Then the candidate simply hammers away again and again at those sound bites.
Winners are those who stay on message, while knocking their opponents off message. For example, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” or, “It’s the economy stupid,” or more recently, “Yes we can.”
Schiff told Mr. Rothenberg that he planned on campaigning on economic reality as he saw it and that he would level with voters about how the size and scope of our current government was unsustainable.
He would not offer any easy government solutions, but only the chance for Americans to regain the economic and personal liberties that once distinguished the United States and permitted it to rise to heights never before attained by any nation.
Schiff acknowledged his “softness” on traditional issues like border security, family values, tax cuts and aggressive foreign policy.
In other words, Schiff would not run on any of the bankable game plans used by Republicans or Democrats.
Mr. Rothenberg asked Schiff if he had seen any polls showing that such a strategy could work. When Schiff said no, Rothenberg looked at him as if he had discovered some new form of bacteria.
Mr. Rothenberg knows how the game works, but what he didn’t know then and still doesn’t know is that the rules of the game are changing.
People are starting to see through the empty promises and campaign rhetoric. And with independent online journalists and social media, people are talking about issues again as they haven’t since television took over the political process.
Though Schiff did not win his campaign, he managed to do far better than Rothenberg would have predicted in his wildest dreams.
Despite being outspent 10 to 1, and ignored by the media, Schiff got 23 percent of the vote in a three-way Republican primary, and had more individual donors than both opponents combined.
Could it be that honesty has a place in politics?
Hopefully, as more and more voters finally get sick of politics as usual, and start paying more attention to issues rather than slogans, pundits like Mr. Rothenberg will have to find a more honest line of work.
After the campaign was over, Schiff had a job to go back to in the real world.
As a creature of Washington, it’s doubtful that Mr. Rothenberg has similar choices.