Importance of Campaign logistics

My foul mood got worse when I read this piece by Publius. Unfortunately, I'm afraid he's right.

Billmon had a good line a while back about military planning: "There's a saying: Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics." I think that’s true for politics too. The biggest mistake that amateur observers (like myself) make is that they overrate ideas and strategy, and underrate money and machines. You hear it a lot — Joe Schmo has $X more cash-on-hand, but it usually goes in one ear and out the other. The amateurs (again, me) are too busy thinking about the speeches they’d write, the commercials they’d make, or the vicious attacks that would win the day.

That stuff is important, but sad to say, it’s usually less important than money and infrastructure. To me, that’s what the significance of the Chafee victory is. As this Post article explains, the efficiency and effectiveness of Chafee’s get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operations (powered by RNC operatives, connections, and cash) won the day. And I hate to give in to the narrative, but it is a warning bell about how good the modern Republican Party has become at the logistics of winning elections.

Maybe some Rhodies can comment and correct me, but I don’t think Linc’s campaign was high on ideas and lofty strategy. I mean, what does that guy represent anyway? He seems to me to be the epitome of timidity and cowardliness.

So instead of developing abstract meta-strategy, Linc and the RNC went logistical. And they did it early. And rest assured that operations described in the Post will be in full effect in places like Ohio and Missouri: