This is an absolutely astounding (and great!) piece of news that has been overshadowed by Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns.
Trump does not believe in the sophisticated data and targeting operations that have become a cornerstone of modern campaigns, and plans to rely on what the article puzzlingly refers to as his “personal appeal” to win the election.
In the interview, Trump outlined a general election campaign that banks heavily on his personal appeal and trademark rallies while spurning the kind of sophisticated data operation that was a centerpiece of Barack Obama's winning White House runs.
"I've always felt it was overrated," Trump said. "Obama got the votes much more so than his data processing machine. And I think the same is true with me."
Obama campaign strategist and all-around genius David Plouffe had something to say about this:
xTrump now wants to ban data and modeling from his campaign. Agree with him that Obama got the votes not data. But flying blind is nuts.
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) May 11, 2016The bottom line is this:
You can have all the personal appeal in the world, but if you don’t know who needs a little push to be on your side and who is on your side but needs a little push to actually get to the polls you are not going to win.
No matter how large your rallies are, they will represent a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the votes you need. Beyond that, people who show up to rallies are the people who are already voting for you and are motivated to turn out.
Your television ads will change some minds, sure. But they aren’t going to do as much as you think.
The Donald relying on his “personal appeal” (ha!) and eschewing the trappings of a modern campaign is great news for Hillary Clinton and Democrats up and down the ballot.