Author Description

To Hear It From Popular Accounts Of Recent American Presidential Campaigns, Strategy And Execution Are Key When It Comes To Winning Elections. In The Aftermath Of These Elections, Detailed Reportage Documents The Key Decisions That Led One Campaign To Triumph Over The Other. Losers Are Scorned, Legends Are Born. Academic Studies Of The Same Campaigns Tell A Vastly Different Story: In These Accounts, Neither Strategy Nor Execution Matters Much Because The Vote Is Largely Determined By Fundamentals Like The State Of The Economy And The Current Popularity Of The Incumbent President. This Book Charts A Middle Course Between The Journalistic Scylla And The Academic Charbydis: We Show How And Why Strategies As Well As Execution Can Contribute To Success In Presidential Elections, But Also How They Have Been Evolving Over The Last 70 Years In Systematic Ways That Make Presidential Campaigning In The Early 21st Century Quite Different In Purpose And Payoff From The Way It Looked In The Mid-20th Century. Prussian Field Marshall Helmuth Von Moltke May Have Been Right When He Said In 1871 That, No Plan Of Operations Extends With Any Certainty Beyond The First Encounter With The Main Enemy Forces. But We-- Provided By Publisher.