Devatating Swing State Polls For Romney ($) FL -0 53% - 44% OH - O 53%- R 43% PA 0 54%- R 42%

[BlueStreak]

17. They can -- at least they can spend hundreds of millions to buy votes

While the money has had some effect, Rove and company have completely misunderstood three important factors:

1) Saturation effect. There comes a time where people get so sick of your ads that they want to do the opposite of what you are telling them.

2) This ain't Bonanza and Lucy anymore. These guys grew up in a world where there were 3 networks and that was pretty much all the average person did for entertainment most nights. Today's eyeballs and earballs are spread thin. We have 300 cable channels, iPods, XM radio, DVDs, video games -- lots of different diversions. Not many people sit down as a family and watch Lucy and Ricky trade clever barbs for a half hour.

3) Internet. We know as well as anybody just how important a change has happened with sites like DU and Facebook. Fundamentally this turns the traditional political advertising model upside down. In many cases, individuals are driving the messaging. A viral video reaches far more people than any traditional ad -- and it reaches people by way of a personal recommendation, so people pay far more attention to it.

When people go back and look at this campaign, they will start to understand these things. This is why the Koch billions haven't produced the expected results. Karl Rove has based his empire on dirty tricks and vast amounts of advertising money. I'm sure he'll always be in demand for his dirty tricks, but I bet it will be increasingly difficult to raise this kind of money in the future.