Donald Trump’s victory was impressive, but that doesn’t mean future Republican election victories are assured.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in one of the greatest political upsets of all time, everyone is rushing to uncover the lessons of the election. Was Donald Trump a unique candidate? Did he uncover a vast movement? Has he crafted a new coalition of voters capable of forming a durable majority in future elections?
The justifiable excitement that surrounds victory often leads to overenthusiastic projections from sparse data points. That’s obviously the tendency after a result nobody sees coming. But it would be a mistake to draw too broadly from a unique election result. Some lessons can be learned; some false lessons should be avoided.
First, the real lessons.
Election Spending Means Almost Nothing When Media Coverage Is Wall-to-Wall
Donald Trump was heavily outspent in the battleground states. In Florida, Hillary destroyed him on the airwaves — but he won the state anyway. The overbroad lesson here would be simple: You never have to spend money on ads. After all, Trump spent practically nothing on TV advertisements during the primaries, but squashed the lead spender, Jeb! Bush. And yet that would ignore the advantages of Trump’s name recognition and massive media dominance.
Mitt Romney didn’t spend early enough on ads in 2012, and it hurt him. Trump was never hurt by staying off the air, because Trump already had name recognition. Republicans running for president should worry about getting their names out there before the primaries if they want to avoid blowing out their bank accounts on ads most voters will speed through with Tivo.
The Media Can Destroy Candidates, but Cannot Help Bad Candidates ...Read the rest from Ben Shapiro HERE.
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment