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When Donkeys and Elephants Meet … Face to Face

This week I've been reading about a meeting that surprised me in an entirely different way — the Harvard Institute of Politics' Campaign Decision Makers Conference brought together campaign managers and analysts from the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns to talk frankly about the strategies and tactics they used during the recent campaign.

By: DonkeyHotey

The thought that campaign strategists who fought so bitterly against one another would sit down to learn from one another seemed to me to be about as likely as, well, a sighting of Bigfoot. But as this story from Slate.com reports, the participants who showed up had substantive and candid conversations and were (mostly) polite to one another. I can’t help but think that meeting face-to-face had a positive effect on keeping the discourse civil and constructive.

And we can use all of that we can get.

Barbara Palmer

Barbara Palmer is senior editor and director of digital content.