May 20, 2007

| History Games >>

This sort of statement —

“You look at the people you have to motivate, and what motivates them, and sometimes it’s a negative message,” said Blaise Hazelwood, another veteran of the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign who served as political director for the Republican National Committee. She set up her business, Grassroots Targeting, in 2005, offering research to campaigns. She has begun branching out to corporate clients, including a major airline.

— sums up more and more of our political process, especially on the (unsexy but crucial) state level. Campaigns are just database queries now.

I know, I know, it’s just advertising — smart, sophisticated, data-driven advertising — but there’s something so mechanistic about it. I think I prefer heavy-handed TV ads to this kind of stuff.