Target Point

“A successful presidential campaign is an extraordinarilycomplex ballet that lasts years and requires intricate footwork by manythousands of people. Leaving aside evaluations of the candid-ate himself,political professionals and independent experts across the ideological spectrumpoint to several people whose performances -- intentionally or not -- may wellhave been pivotal to President Bush's victory. Karl Rove, The Architect, Osamabin Laden, Terrorist, Alex Gage, TargetPoint Consulting, Margaret Marshall,Chief Justice-Massachusetts Supreme Court and John O'Neill, Swift Boat Veteransfor Truth.

The head of a little-known marketing firm called TargetPointConsulting, Alex Gage developed a targeting strategy based on concepts and databorrowed from commercial marketing efforts. TargetPoint’s microtargeting is farmore sophisticated than the traditional practice of focusing get-out-the-voteefforts on entire precincts that generally vote heavily for the party doing thetargeting. And the GOP banked on Gage's approach.”