Staffers working for the Romney 2012 campaign got a sudden and unwelcome lesson in fiscal conservatism Tuesday night and Wednesday morning when they tried to check out of hotel rooms or travel home. According to NBC’s “First Read” blog, campaign workers were left to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they found that all the credit cards issued by Romney/Ryan 2012 were canceled as soon as the nominee finished his concession speech.

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“From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself,” wrote NBC’s Garrett Haake. “Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.”

Forbes magazine explained that this is not normal protocol for political campaigns.

“In case you are wondering, this did not have to happen,” wrote columnist Helaine Olen. “The Mitt Romney for President entity does not end with Romney’s Tuesday night loss. There are papers to be filed with various federal commissions and bills to be paid.”

Romney/Ryan 2012 is expected to be an extant business entity for years to come. In 2010, Hillary Clinton’s campaign was still soliciting donations to retire the last $771,000 of the $5.9 million debt it accrued in the bruising 2008 Democratic primary fight.

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