Management and the Romney Transition That Wasn't

[The Straight Story]

This week, my colleague Charlie Clark told the story of the Romney transition that wasn't. The 2012 Republican contender's campaign, the first to operate under a 2010 law designed to smooth the presidential transition process by facilitating advance planning, had a remarkably robust operation. By late summer 2012, some 500 people were working on Romney transition plans, preparing a 200-day agenda for the start of the admininstration and a budget plan, among other things.

But the staff, under the leadership of former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, never got the opportunity to put their plans into operation. So they did the next-best thing: They compiled the story of the transition project into a lessons-learned book. It's an impressive volume, laying out in great detail the procedures and policies the team had in place to hit the ground running after the election.

I was struck, however, by one page in the appendix, showing the operation's organizational chart. It lists various units of the transtion team and the projected number of employees they would need. The Policy Development shop, for example, is projected at 243 employees. Presidential Appointments was slated for 135 employees, and Legislative Affairs was pegged at 76.

Then there's the staff under the category Management Agenda: 16 employees.

http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2013/05/management-and-romney-transition-wasnt/64016/?oref=river

[liberalhistorian]

1. I am quite thankful that

this team never got their chance to implement all of their grand designs to screw over the majority of Americans and turn the clock back to 1953. What arrogance on rMoney's part to start such a large, complex operation before the ink on his nomination was even dry. Perhaps if he'd focused more on the actual campaign part of things, instead of just automatically assuming that he'd win because he was, you know, absolutely entitled to it no matter what the little people thought, he would have been able to put the transition plan to practical use.

Then again, it's a damn good thing for the country and the world that he did NOT focus as he should have on the campaign. Now, if only he and his people would just shut the hell up and GO AWAY and quit drinking from their sour grapes! WHO CARES what he has to say anymore? He lost, he and his people need to get the hell over it once and for all.

[hollysmom]

2. If they wanted to turn the clock back to 1953

they would have had to raise the tax rate quite a lot, so I think they wanted to go back to kings and serfs.

[quaker bill]

3. Romney did better than I expected

If you just look at win/lose, yes, he lost. (Thankfully)

Storm Sandy aside he likely would have lost by 4+ percent. I was expecting 5 to 7%. I think given who he is as a person, he ran about as good a campaign as he could. People like to think he failed. I think he succeeded in coming in a much closer second than he should have, and certainly did far better than any of the other republicans running would have done.

Yes, he finished second in what was in all practical senses a two person race. But given his handicaps, he put in a reasonable showing. No, I do not like the guy at all, but I think people have thrown him under the bus, when in fact the problem was the republican party in general.