Zuckerberg hires former Clinton pollster

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/02/zuckerberg-hires-former-clinton-pollster-joel-benenson-241265

by elsewhen • 9 years ago

29 40 9 years ago

politico.com

jrs952• 9 years ago

Seems like he might really be going for 2020. This might be even more interesting than 2016 was.

itg• 9 years ago

If he does run, I can't even imagine the type of data he has access to. What a massive advantage.

maxxxxx• 9 years ago

I don't think he can just use Facebook's data. That would be insane.

Mikeb853• 9 years ago

Hiring a member of the losing team, especially one whose polling was obviously very bad (they didn't come close to accurately predicting Clinton's popularity or lack thereof), doesn't seem like the path to victory.

Avshalom• 9 years ago

to be fair she won the popular by 3m, they just happened to be inefficient votes.

Mikeb853• 9 years ago

Which polling should have been able to reflect, and allow her to better target some of the voters she lost.

She skipped out on campaigning in several states that flipped for Trump, and didn't really do much to address her (un)likeability.

Edit - the US election is won or lost on electoral votes, not the popular vote. You play to win within the rules, not to make excuses.

microcolonel• 9 years ago

A ~1% popular advantage is not anywhere near what the committee's own polling data suggested (30-40% spread), nor that of any mainstream media outlet. They were closer to the edge of the scale than the actual number. That is to say, they were almost as wrong as numerically possible, without going the opposite direction.

Turing_Machine5• 9 years ago

The president of the United States is not, and never has been, elected by popular vote.

In fact, virtually no Western democracy chooses its leader on the basis of a popular vote (I believe there are a few exceptions).

It's sophistry to even bring it up.

I mean, sorry to step on your narrative by pointing out this basic fact.

You guys do know that even if our government operated like Canada, or Sweden, or any of the other countries you profess to admire, that Hillary Clinton still wouldn't be President, right? In fact, under a parliamentary system, the President would be chosen by insider dealing between party hacks like McConnell, Ryan, etc.

guelo• 9 years ago

God damn it. Now all the billionaires are lining up for a run, this is our new dystopia. Trump's election is like the moment in Rome when Caesar crowned himself emperor, the empire went downhill from there. We need to re-establish the old societal norm of hating rich people or all we're going to get are celebrity billionaires from now on. Rich people are inherently bad and evil. They got to where they are by destroying many people along the way. All our efforts as a society must be directed at limiting their power or our democratic experiment is over. Bring back the guillotines!

justin• 9 years ago

Such a bunch of bullshit. Plenty of people are rich because they are doctors, surgeons, entrepreneurs who provided a service and created jobs.

_delirium2• 9 years ago

Nobody has ever made a billion dollars simply by being a doctor or surgeon. In medicine, it's the pharma investors who make that kind of money, not the people who actually work in hospitals.

Mikeb853• 9 years ago

Either the billionaires run it or the politicians owned by the billionaires. The fact anyone ever thought it was ruled by the people is kind of amusing.

programmarchy• 9 years ago

This is the type of demented thinking that brought about the gulags, which were morally reprehensible and made everyone poorer.

Turing_Machine5• 9 years ago

" like the moment in Rome when Caesar crowned himself emperor, the empire went downhill from there"

No, actually the Roman Empire started when Octavian was granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate. It was a republic before that. He didn't "crown himself" anything.

I'm not sure which "Caesar" the OP had in mind (there were...umm... a bunch of them) but the Roman Empire continued to expand for quite a long time after the end of the Republic. It didn't start shrinking until the time of Hadrian, fourteen emperors down the line.

dang• 9 years ago

Would you please not post ideological rants here? There are plenty of ways to make a point about plutocracy without degrading the discussion quality like this.

pithic• 9 years ago

Zuckerberg 2020

Trust Me, Dumb Fucks

alttab3• 9 years ago

Seriously this right here. This reason alone he will never get my vote.

His argument would have to be that he is reformed.

I'd rather vote for someone who doesn't have to come back from that - especially since it's the reason he's made billions.

to_bpr• 9 years ago

This reason alone he will never get my vote.

Would you like people to hold an off-the-cuff comment made at the age of 20 against you for the rest of your days?

I've many issues with FB, Zuckerberg and the rest of the cohort, but a comment made 13 years ago isn't one of them.

DrScump• 9 years ago

or, "How I Became President by Discovering this One Weird Trick..."

nether• 9 years ago

Am I the only one who thinks this speculation on Zuck running for pres is all nonsense? There's been a revolving door between Dem staff and elite tech industry positions since Obama. No one thought Larry Page or Sergey Brin was going into politics then. He's a young person very interested in politics, and has the wherewithal to explore the arena in some unique ways (visiting random blue collar Americans), but there's no indication he's ready to abandon his duties at FB. Or is there?

alttab3• 9 years ago

He will barely meet the age requirement by 2020

goatsi• 9 years ago

People who are merely exploring the country to learn more about it rarely feel the need to intensively document it using a professional media team.

weirdstuff2• 9 years ago

He's making the same public motions that an office-seeker would perform. I don't think it's off base to connect the dots.

teekno• 9 years ago

/gif its happening

RickJWag• 9 years ago

Should've hired from Bernie's team. He was outspent, fighting against the DNC (and the media), operating on grass roots rather than machine politics. He almost won. In fairness, much of the same could be said of Trump. Hillary's team lost in spite of massive inorganic advantages.

CurryMath3• 9 years ago

I know this is completely off-topic, but what's up with the comments?

To me they seem as kinda unusual for HN, more reddit-like. Among all the threads I have looked at in the last few hours, this is the only one where it is so extreme.

weirdstuff2• 9 years ago

In all fairness the idea of Zuckerberg running for president is a little extreme (even if true) and is likely to be the subject of ridicule and criticism.

CurryMath3• 9 years ago

I understand that, bu usually HN refrains from commenting repetitive one-liners.

The main reason I come to HN instead of just living on reddit is that the chance that the comments refer to content in the article and not just the sentiment of the headline is much greater.

Also, comments are somewhat unique. The trouble with reddit comments is that they are completely overrun with extremely predictable memes or express some sort of emotion (usually outrage or hype) without adding anything.

I really fear that HN turns into a subreddit, because I have no idea what site I would go to next.

tj-teej• 9 years ago

Politics, Clinton, Zuckerberg, no-concrete point to debate.

"It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be... the perfect storm."

Zuckerberg hires former Clinton pollster

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