It is absolutely astonishing that Romney and the GOP

[starroute]

32. There's an excellent article at Slate analyzing their failures

The short version is that the Republicans really don't trust scientists, don't trust academics, and think their own gut feelings are superior to anything that comes out of data analysis.


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/victory_lab/2012/10/obama_s_secret_weapon_democrats_have_a_massive_advantage_in_targeting_and.single.html

This summer, a top Republican analyst stumbled upon a job notice posted by the left-wing League of Conservation Voters. The position was Targeting and Data Director. The analyst looked admiringly at the description of the job, especially its duties to “explore and devise opportunities to test and measure the impact of all of our programs, including working closely with entities such as the Analyst Institute.” He marveled at what that language revealed about the sophistication of his rivals’ intellectual enterprise. “One thing the left—Catalist, Analyst Institute, New Organizing Institute—has done very well is training and seeding of this sort of stuff, this sort of philosophy,” said the analyst, who asked not to be identified because of election-season attachments but has worked closely with the Republican National Committee and presidential campaigns.

Dozens of such postings exist in what some call the “progressive data community.” I asked the Republican analyst what analogous jobs existed among the institutions of the right. How many of the League of Conservation Voters’ ideological foes—like the Chamber of Commerce, or their frequent allies at the National Rifle Association or the Faith and Freedom Coalition—have data managers and targeting directors with similar mandates to test and measure?

“I honestly don’t know,” the analyst replied. “If I had to guess? Zero.”