The Obama page (left) and the Romney page (click to enlarge)

I wonder where the idea for the Paul Ryan banner came from?

On September 2, Zac Moffatt is digital director for Miss Romney’s presidential campaign. On September 2, he bragged on Mashable.com,

I think our online ad team is superior to theirs. It’s where we pride ourselves as a campaign to be cutting edge…. We think it’s one of our greatest strengths…I always feel that hubris of the Obama campaign is they look down on Republicans because they think we don’t understand how digital works.”

Which is interesting. Because they’ve been copying the Obama campaign.

In March, the Obama campaign put up a “quick donate” page. The Romney campaign put up its own such page in late August–and it’s almost identical to the Obama page. They even used some of the same text, including a punctuation error (a comma outside a quote mark).

Obama wording:
After you’ve saved your credit card and phone number in your BarackObama.com account, you can use your cell phone to make a donation. All you need to do is text the amount you want to give. If you text us “10″, we’ll charge your saved credit card $10. It’s never been easier to donate.

Romney wording:
After you’ve saved your credit card and phone number in your MyMitt account, you can use your cell phone to make a donation. All you need to do is text the amount you want to give. If you text us “10″, we’ll charge your saved credit card $10. It’s never been easier to donate.

The Obama site’s “Terms of Use” states that the website “including, without limitation, OFA’s logo, and all designs, text…are the proprietary property of OFA or its licensors or users and are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws.”

Another example of the Romney campaign stealing from the Obama campaign involves banners created for the separate campaigns.

So yes, they built it. Kind of like the Chinese build it–by copying someone else.