If you ignore the contradictory parts (change the API, revamp the data-storage architecture, and have a CMS in place such that the only work that needs to be done is in the user interface), it's not such a bad RFP for someone who knows that they have no clue what they're doing.

You could imagine companies sitting down with a proposal like this and talking to the RNC to figure out what they really want/need, and then building something pretty useful.

Except for the parts where the final proposals are due next week, with rigorous cost numbers, and full rollout is six weeks after they pick a contractor. That's like saying you don't know if you want a compact, a mid-size or an SUV, but you want the dealer to give you a firm fixed price and commit to you driving it off the lot next month.

If I had to bet, it would be on all of the above: the fix is in, and the people involved have no idea what they're doing.

Why are people surprised. The whole concept of being a Republican in and of itself is brain dead. The Republicans that are attacking Steele are not smarter then he is by virtue of the fact that they are Republicans. These are the people that destroyed America as we know it. None of them have credibility in my mind.

I think that the RFP conversations with the vendor would include the phrase, "Bam! We're gonna kick it up a notch!"

A complete joke. I have seen RFP for small branch hospital website that was 100+ pages and took months of interviews with staff to create. I took part in creating the RFI (Request for Information, which comes before the RFP) for a small city library which took a year to write and hundreds of hours. After that we went to RFP which was about an inch thick and took another year. These documents are excruciatingly detailed.

I like the part about "experience building social media sites from the ground up essential."

Completion in 45 days is hilarious! Try fast track and everything going smoothly for 1.5 years.

Oh, and no mention of what they already have, like umm, do they already have a server?

ALL YOUR SUBURBAN-URBAN HIP-HOP BASE BELONG TO US!! YOU GOT PROXY SERVED!! THIS IS TERABYTE-RIFIC NEWS!! FOR GLADOS!!*

* Michael Steele, I'm making a note here: Huge Success

Is it just me, but does Steele, in some photos, look like Larry David in blackface?

Someone please put photos of them side by side.

I'm a web designer and I avoid these kind of RFPs from people who don't really know what they want beyond what they call "cutting edge", which can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Not worth the posterior pain when the price is set before the endless changes are demanded. Too vague on specifics and guaranteed to be a big CF when too many people get involved.
Then, when the message doesn't work, they say it's because it wasn't "cutting edge" enough.
The me-too-ism from the GOP is hilarious. First, after having their heads handed to them in the presidential election by a person of color they try to find their own person of color for a high position. Barack Obama used the internet to build a huge base. So the GOP tries it but is betting on Flash to make it transformative, rather than a message and platform that resonates with voters beyond the dittoheads now causing so much trouble for Steele.

The token GOP "Uncle Tom", how much better could this get!!!!

The Republicans have become the Marx Brothers

As someone who has worked in graphic design for almost 40 years I have one suggestion to any design firm out there thinking of taking on this job: DON'T. This man will be the client from hell with the standard "I don't like it, but I'll know it when I see it" response to everything.

The upside is this bozo will spend waaaaaaaaaay too much money so your billable hours will fill your wallet, but your frustration level with this idiot will give you an ulcer, possible aneurism. Plus his taste level will be low, very low, so don't even think of being creative. Think animated waving flags, lots of stars, and of course red, white, and blue. To him animated elephants walking trunk to tail across the bottom of the screen will be "outside-the-box". He'll probably even give you a fist bump and say "awesome!"

I really don't see the problem here. That said, the last time I was in the business of responding to things like this and figuring out if folks responding to them knew what they were doing, it was 1998 and the Internet was a magical and inexplicable place. Oh, and we were also unduly impressed by Flash.

Anyway, if this serves as a flashpoint for RNC minions, it has a lot more to do with folks who are peeved they aren't going to get a job out of that tech summit they had and folks who have decided they're out to get Steele anyway and think they've found another example of poor management skills to leak to the press.

Considering they flat-out say they're looking for new ideas, I don't know how you'd expect a more complete RFP than this. It doesn't look very professional, but it gets all of their requirements across (some redundancy there, but really not bad).