# The Lincoln Project **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 10, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550 "2020-05-10T20:51:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/221 "2020-10-12T06:59:54Z")
Wow - that’s perfect! Ron Popeil would approve this message. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/222 "2020-10-13T13:47:09Z")
Yeah, I remember when that came out during the election. There were some other incidents related to how he treated his wives. Mostly though, he gave America Sarah Palin, and I think set the stage for Trump. The Lincoln Project is on the right side during this election, but Trump is just a symptom and as soon as he’s out, that alliance is dead. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/223 "2020-10-15T05:12:05Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Mostly though, he [McCain] gave America Sarah Palin, and I think set the stage for Trump. Actually, the person who suggested Sarah Palin to McCain was Steve Schmidt (of the Lincoln Project). From [The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/inside-the-lincoln-projects-war-against-trump): > **[Inside the Lincoln Project’s War Against Trump](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/inside-the-lincoln-projects-war-against-trump)** > > Progressives are wary of the conservative group hammering the President, but its founders say they’re fighting for all Americans. > Schmidt served in the [George W. Bush](https://www.newyorker.com/tag/george-w-bush) White House, where he was instrumental in seating the Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and [John Roberts](https://www.newyorker.com/tag/chief-justice-john-roberts). He is widely known for having suggested Sarah Palin as a running mate for McCain, in 2008. Schmidt clearly regrets choosing someone whose crude populism presaged Trump. He was a source for “[Game Change](https://www.amazon.com/Game-Change-Clintons-McCain-Lifetime/dp/0061733644),” a book about the McCain campaign that characterized Palin as unprepared and difficult; in September, he said that Palin represented “the beginning of the politics of cowardice and fear.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/224 "2020-10-15T09:10:37Z")
Yeah, but McCain agreed. It was his name on the top of the ticket. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/225 "2020-10-15T14:53:23Z")
^^ Oh, of course. Neither one of them did any due diligence. They both have a lot to answer for. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/226 "2020-10-15T15:49:55Z")
Oh yeah. I don’t despise McCain, but he did fail the country at an important moment. Like I’ve said, I’m allies with the Lincoln Project now, but as soon as the election is over, that alliance is over. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/227 "2020-10-16T00:03:25Z")
a lot of military pilots just want free training to go to work for a big airline. Just like Lou Gosset said in an Officer and a gentleman. They are not all gung ho about the military. Some are moderate and some liberal. And some of them stay in the reserves so they get pay from the airline and the military. I read that on 9/11 there were only 2 fighters in the air on the whole east coast to start the day and they were either AF reserve or air national guard. That made sense because the idea that any country would attack the US by air was considered very far fetched. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/228 "2020-10-16T13:43:50Z")
Not so sure Bijou, I think they just want to fly. And want ‘free’ training to be able to do so. Becoming a military pilot is an arduous task I’m sure. And few make the cut. The career path after that is pretty obvious. While it’s a very esteemed position to be a pilot in the military or commercial service, I suspect that flying a commercial airliner sort of sucks. But will defer to our big iron pilots that we have on this board. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/229 "2020-10-16T15:31:57Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Not so sure Bijou, I think they just want to fly. And want ‘free’ training to be able to do so. Becoming a military pilot is an arduous task I’m sure. And few make the cut. The career path after that is pretty obvious. > > While it’s a very esteemed position to be a pilot in the military or commercial service, I suspect that flying a commercial airliner sort of sucks. But will defer to our big iron pilots that we have on this board. When I was in high school, I really wanted to be a military pilot, followed by a career flying commercial airliners. Unfortunately I found out I needed glasses during my entrance physical for ROTC, so that went out the window (and so I decided to go into the submarine force instead). I have an uncle who had the same thing happen to him. He was determined to fly, so he skipped the military and went the civilian route. As it turns out, it’s very difficult and very expensive to get the flight hours you need to get to the major airlines without going the military route, and he never made it past flying turboprops for a regional carrier (while getting paid virtually nothing for this). As for me, I never did learn to fly. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/230 "2020-10-17T06:46:45Z")
I am super…super cautious of the “Lincoln Project”. When have conservatives been cool? We can easily go back to the 80’s and before and they have ALWAYS been dicks. The Lincoln Project is trying to salvage something and suggest they have been cool all along. They haven’t. We have not seen them till very recently when the political landscape looked bad for conservatives. Where were they four years ago? Ten? Twenty? Fuck them. They have some spiffy ads but make no mistake they are a wolf in sheep’s clothing and still want awful policies. Never give them a dime. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/231 "2020-10-17T18:02:41Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > The Lincoln Project is trying to salvage something and suggest they have been cool all along. Cool? No, they’re trying to be respectable, unlike Trump and his MAG-hatted minions. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > We have not seen them till very recently when the political landscape looked bad for conservatives. Where were they four years ago? Likely expecting Trump to show a modicum of leadership and an ability to at least act Presidential, only to be let down. Bigly. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/232 "2020-10-18T01:12:15Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I am super…super cautious of the “Lincoln Project”. There’s tons of speculation (with some reasonable evidence) that their main goal is to collect lots of money from Democratics. Most of their ads didn’t run in swing states until just recently, but only in places where everyone was already voting Democratic. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/233 "2020-10-18T08:24:55Z")
Wait…are these rumors trying to say that the LP is helping Trump by siphoning money from Democrats? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/234 "2020-10-18T18:40:51Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Wait…are these rumors trying to say that the LP is helping Trump by siphoning money from Democrats?  No, a lot of it is going to themselves. There’s little oversight. Skeptics wonder who will benefit from the remaining funds after the election, and assume it’ll go back to republicans. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lincoln_Project): > The [Center for Responsive Politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Responsive_Politics), a campaign-finance watchdog group, wrote that (like most PACs)[[55]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lincoln_Project#cite_note-Ferguson-56) most of the Lincoln Project’s money went to pay subcontractors, “making it difficult to follow the money” to vendors, and that “almost all” of the money raised went to firms run by the group’s board members, specifically Galen’s Summit Strategic Communications and Steslow’s Tusk Digital.[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lincoln_Project#cite_note-Evers-Hillstrom-14) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/235 "2020-10-18T18:52:54Z")
WHAT remaining funds? They are spending $$ on those ads handoverfist. I’d be surprised if there is more than petty cash left over after the election. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/236 "2020-10-18T20:39:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > WHAT remaining funds? They are spending $$ on those ads handoverfist. I’d be surprised if there is more than petty cash left over after the election.  You have _no_ idea what they’re taking in and what they’re spending. Campaign finance expert [Rob Pyers](https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-rob-pyers-target-book-20170109-story.html) has looked into it. From [Pyers’ twitter feed](https://twitter.com/rpyers/status/1316359719225749506): > > > CATargetBot @CATargetBot > The Lincoln Project convinced Democratic donors to part with $39,384,397 in Q3. It burned a staggering $13 million on operating expenditures, made $23.9M of IEs (mostly routed into its founders firms), and ended with $13.2M on hand. > … > Catering to [#Resist](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Resist?src=hashtag_click) donors has been a lucrative reversal of fortune for the Lincoln Project’s founders. Reed Galen’s Summit Strategic was paid $18.8M in Q3, Ron Steslow’s TUSK Digital got $8.7M, Kurt Bardella’s Endeavor Strategy got $153K > … > Nice work if you can get it. Lincoln Project founder Reed Galen’s Summit Strategic logged $129,668 in expenditures for lodging reimbursement in August. > … > The turnaround for Galen’s firm is particularly pronounced, coming off a 2018 cycle where its only receipts from a federal client amounted to $12,000 from an IE backing a GOP primary challenger to Dana Rohrabacher. > … > Looking through the top transactions, the amount spent on ‘Research Services’ suggests they’re overpaying for someone to trawl through twitter to snatch up other people’s content. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/237 "2020-10-18T20:52:57Z")
Here’s an opinion piece from a conservative: > **[The people hurt the most by the Lincoln Project are the people who throw...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/?p=1464767)** > > Who knew there was so much money in performative acts of protest? The Lincoln Project, an activist group founded by political mercenaries who have moved on from losing elections for the Republican Party, is doing an amazing job of vacuuming up... > \ > “Looking through the top transactions,” Pyers notes, “the amount spent on ‘Research Services’ suggests they’re overpaying for someone to trawl through twitter to snatch up other people’s content.” > > **Man, what a racket.** > > **Honestly, in a way, this is the greatest victory that many of these former GOP "strategists” and “insiders” have had against Democrats in a very long time. Think of all those millions of dollars that could have gone toward competitive Senate races in places such as Arizona, North Carolina, and Colorado. Think of how much $39.4 million could have done to tilt the Senate in the Democratic Party’s favor. Think of all the grassroots get-out-the-vote efforts for Democratic nominee Joe Biden that could have been funded with even half of what the Lincoln Project raised from July through September.** > > **Instead, millions of “resistance” dollars went to a group that specializes in “repurposing” other people’s viral social media content and producing boilerplate television ads watched and shared primarily by people who already agree with the anti-Trump message.** The Lincoln Project’s multimillion-dollar haul is great news for the Lincoln Project. It is also great news for Republicans, whom the anti-Trump Lincoln Project is supposedly trying to teach a lesson. > > But it is bad news for Democrats. Ironically enough, the people who are hurt the most by the Lincoln Project are the same people who are throwing money at it hand over fist. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/238 "2020-10-18T21:33:56Z")
This sounds an awful lot like a dumb ass conspiracy, helped along by a conservative pundit. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/239 "2020-10-18T22:43:46Z")
What? Not at all. Rob Pyers is a highly respected analyst and his links are to the Q3 financials of the LP. Look at the actual tweets and the links to their financials. LP started coming under fire months ago for not airing TV ads in markets that weren’t already voting against Trump. They were running only a very limited number of TV ads, and only in democratic strongholds. After it starting getting reported on did they start putting ads in areas where it might do some good, in swing states. And all those ads “for an audience of one” that were intended to get under Trump’s skin? Those ads did no good politically to move the needle - how much did those cost? Those were effectively promotions to get democratic donations. This has been followed by plenty of centrist and liberal media, including The Atlantic and others. As always in politics, following the money is the best bet, if you can figure out whose pockets it’s going into. Best guesses are that they’re enriching themselves and their cronies, and then to the republican party (duh). It’s kind of “the enemy of my enemy is my ally”, but don’t be fooled into thinking they’re on our side. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550/240 "2020-10-18T22:44:51Z")
I’m thrilled that the Lincoln Project is attacking Trump and the Republicans where it hurts. But I’m not sending them any money. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lincoln-project/853550.md?page=13)