The New Republic reviews a book that provides an inside look at how data-management has transformed elections. Things have changed dramatically since the digital revolution, but you wouldn't know it based on how the media covers campaigns:
OVER THE LAST ten years, political campaigns have become extraordinarily
sophisticated. New technology and an eagerness to identify and exploit
the slightest competitive edge have turned campaign strategy into a
number-crunching, detail-oriented science. Campaign coverage, on the
other hand, has remained mainly concerned with unsubstantiated
assertions and campaign lore: the attacks, the themes, and the
advertisements that are assumed to be central to the outcome of the
race, even without strong evidence.
Here's the website that accompanies the book, and the book itself.
