How political campaign strategy works #3

An interesting perspective on the differences between the Clinton and Obama capaign strategies:

The Audacity of Hopelessness

From the article:

The gap in hard work between the two campaigns was clear well before Feb. 5. Mrs. Clinton threw as much as $25 million at the Iowa caucuses without ever matching Mr. Obama’s organizational strength. In South Carolina, where last fall she was up 20 percentage points in the polls, she relied on top-down endorsements and the patina of inevitability, while the Obama campaign built a landslide-winning organization from scratch at the grass roots. In Kansas, three paid Obama organizers had the field to themselves for three months; ultimately Obama staff members outnumbered Clinton staff members there 18 to 3.

In the last battleground, Wisconsin, the Clinton campaign was six days behind Mr. Obama in putting up ads and had only four campaign offices to his 11. Even as Mrs. Clinton clings to her latest firewall — the March 4 contests — she is still being outhustled. Last week she told reporters that she “had no idea” that the Texas primary system was “so bizarre” (it’s a primary-caucus hybrid), adding that she had “people trying to understand it as we speak.” Perhaps her people can borrow the road map from Obama’s people. In Vermont, another March 4 contest, The Burlington Free Press reported that there were four Obama offices and no Clinton offices as of five days ago. For what will no doubt be the next firewall after March 4, Pennsylvania on April 22, the Clinton campaign is sufficiently disorganized that it couldn’t file a complete slate of delegates by even an extended ballot deadline.

Also interesting was McCain’s ability to turn this week’s NYT article (about an alleged affair) around and take advantage of it:

McCain dodges bullet

How was he able to do that? According to the article:

While McCain, with his wife at his side, denied the story, his aides hurled a torrent of criticism at the Times for running a story they called a “smear.” Conservative radio hosts, who’ve been bashing McCain for weeks, closed ranks behind him to decry what Rush Limbaugh calls the “drive-by media.”

Within hours of its publication, McCain was using the story to raise money - and aides reported one of their best 24-hour periods of fundraising.

“Things could still turn sour, but right now he has a sweet pitcher of lemonade after being presented with a bushel full of lemons,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Sabato, who wrote the 1991 book “Feeding Frenzy,” about politicians and the media during scandals, said the McCain camp put together the swiftest response he’s ever seen.

Huckabee also disclosed his strategy this week:

Mike Huckabee’s strategy: Deadlocked convention

From the article:

In an interview with a San Antonio radio station this morning, Mike Huckabee essentially confirmed the suspicions of many analysts. He’s hanging on in the Republican presidential nomination fight hoping to keep John McCain from winning enough delegates to get the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in September.

Huckabee’s thinking: With no clear nominee, the conservative wing will move to him, and he might be able to snatch the nomination in a floor fight

[See #2]