"We didn't have time to phone-call anybody." [Y(es)T]

[Joel S. Berson]

Apparently this was said by ORCA, the Romney campaign's app to direct
get-out-the-vote efforts to the precincts most needing remedial
effort.  According to the Boston Globe Saturday, Nov. 10: "a
high-tech meltdown / Online voter-turnout setup crashed Tuesday".
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/11/10/orca-mitt-romney-high-tech-get-out-vote-program-crashed-election-day/6Oyavmi6V94dZbqRhPucrO/story.html

In this article, Zac Moffatt, the campaign's digital director, is
quoted as adding that the problems were not "election
determinative."   That is, ORCA is not a 'scape goat.

A National Monitor piece today, Nov. 11, provides the following
Application Requirements Specification:
>They had sent out 34,000 volunteers into the field in swing states
>with the Orca mobile web app, feeling confident that these
>volunteers would be able to transmit real-time information to
>staffers in TD Garden. The staffers, as a result of the real-time
>intelligence, would be able to direct critical get-out-the-vote
>efforts in swing states by allocated [sic; allocating?] resources as needed.
http://natmonitor.com/2012/11/11/did-mitt-romneys-failed-orca-app-cost-him-the-election-video/

Also, the phrase "fail whale" has been apped to this marine animal.

ORCA's Romnology:
>According to ABC News' Michael Falcone, even the name of the Romney
>campaign's sophisticated poll-monitoring system was meant to be a
>dig at the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign had conducted an
>advanced data-gathering effort called Project Narwhal. The Orca, the
>Romney team said, is a natural predator of the narwhal.

(And a bonus: use of "real-time".)

Joel

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