Obama's Analytics Cave

A story about how campaign staffers transition from extreme secrecy during campaigns to openly sharing information after elections end.

"In 2012, Obama had this analytics department with 52-54 people - it was huge, they called it 'the cave.' Throughout the year, I was reporting for Slate and could only get bits of news through really careful reporting. The campaign manager would summon people from the analytics department to his office asking 'did you talk to Sasha?' if any information leaked - it was pretty serious.

Then the day after the election, a whole bunch of them were getting Eric Schmidt to launch a firm for them. They were giving interviews to everybody who wanted and taking credit for all sorts of things that probably weren't theirs alone to take credit for.

This happens because campaigns have binary outcomes - one candidate wins, one loses. After the election, everyone tries to tell the most convincing story about why the election turned out the way it did. You get moderates claiming it was their positions that won it, technical people saying it was their TV ads or social media strategy. You need a good BS meter and need to be alert to everybody's incentives for telling certain types of stories."