Flashback Video: Messina Brags About Big Data

Big data is big in the news right now with this Cambridge Analytica story. Remember when leveraging big data for presidential campaigns was a good thing?

Jim Messina was the chief of staff to former Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and President Obama's campaign manager. In case you missed it, Rush Limbaugh brings you this flashback- 2013: Obama Campaign Manager Brags About Facebook Data Mining.

Here's what Rush had to say on air:

When lying, phony advertising makes people vote for Obama, it’s wonderful, it’s a great plan, it’s brilliance in action, it’s genius. When this stuff is said to be responsible for Trump getting votes, then that’s a big red flag and very dangerous. And that’s what they’re setting up here, when in truth, the impact of political advertising in reinforcing positive reactions has not been documented.

I mentioned this story, and the Montana connection, on the air last week on our "Montana Talks" radio show.

Here's a Washington Post story from back in 2013: How the Obama campaign won the race for voter data

In one of their first conversations about 2012, campaign manager Jim Messina said he told the president that they could not rerun 2008. Obama seemed puzzled. “You know we won that one,” Obama said. Messina said too much had changed. For one thing, Obama was now an incumbent with a record. But technology had also leapfrogged forward, with new devices, new platforms and vastly more opportunities to exploit social media. The whole campaign would have to be different.

Meanwhile, a former Obama campaign staffer says Facebook looked the other way when it came to the Obama team, as The Daily Caller reports.

Carol Davidsen, former director of Obama for America’s Integration and Media Analytics, reveals the manner the Democratic presidential campaign was freely given access. Furthermore, she openly claims that Facebook gave the Obama campaigners a pass because of their political affiliation.