The Ultimate Triumph of Campaign Consultants

Walter Shapiro: “The 2022 midterm campaigns—with spending on TV ads alone likely to come close to $10 billion—have become a consultant’s dream. Almost everything spontaneous has been drained out of American politics. Now campaigns are almost completely waged with dueling 30-second spots in which the candidate is merely a bit player who often says nothing more than, ‘I approve this message.'”

“Candidates—especially right-wing Republicans—shun the traditional media as they largely campaign on conservative talk radio and safe venues such as Fox News and Newsmax. Public campaign schedules, which used to clog inboxes, are now often as closely guarded as all the nuclear secrets that are not housed at Mar-a-Lago. Safe spaces are what all campaigns desire since, in an age when everyone is a videographer, an off-key joke or a snappish response to a voter can be plastered all over Twitter and YouTube within three minutes.”