Better Banter

Ten days after an extremely disappointing election, the pundit class is pointing fingers in every direction. What caused the Romney loss? Was it the ground game? The media putting its thumb on the scales? Failure to press Benghazi as an issue? Ideology? Apathy? Gaffes? There's been plenty of good and bad pontificating on all of the above. Certainly the much-vaunted Project Orca was a failure. But why? I'd like to take a closer look today, and address the recent "who built it" scapegoat effort. As someone who has managed web-based software application products and projects since there have been web-based software applications, and a Project Orca observer on the ground in Ohio on election day, I thought I'd bring my perspective to the problem. Not to spoil the ending, but I believe that the application itself was the least of Team Romney's problems on election day, and were overshadowed by problems with deployment and fatal problems with the concept itself.

So it's interesting that all these news organizations are starting the Orwellian "fact check" campaigns. Isn't that part of every journalist's job? Are they admittedly only checking the facts in the one article each day? Sounds about right. But now we've gone beyond cherry-picking whose facts to check, and have wrapped opinion journalism snugly in the context of a fact check. Here's one from ABC on Romney's speech: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/fact-check-mitt-romneys-republican-national-convention-speech/story?id=17119764#.UEYSFiIWoRY Please tell me which fact he got wrong. Some of these are jaw-dropping, like the one about the Poles and Czechs. BTW, what do Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa think about it? Dare they ask? Read the tortured logic on how the Medicare cuts aren't really cuts, and the only word that will spring to mind is "shill."

Kelly Ayotte had a slower delivery than a unionized pizza shop. Good grief. Gilchrist's accent reminds me of home. Kasich knocked it out of the park at the Romney rally on Saturday, borrowed heavily from it for today, but wasn't nearly as good in such a formal setting. Would love to catch Gwen Ifil's mic open after she finished with Terry Branstead. Mark Shields seems completely baffled by the purpose of the convention. Wow. Huge ovation for Scott Walker's entrance. Well deserved. 94% of employers think Wisconsin headed in the right direction vs just 10% previously. 225th anniversary if US Constitution coming up. I wonder if anyone will care when we hit 250? Every question from Judy and Gwen is challenging. Does anyone doubt that tune will change in a few weeks? "is it hard being so smart? What's on your iPod?" Senator Barrasso has some gravitas. Shoved Shields' EPA question neatly back down his throat. Wow, they are jumping all over th