Pressing the Flesh

OpenLeft adds up both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates' time investment in various states (data courtesy of WaPo).

First, here are the Dems:

Democratic Candidate Trips To Early States

Candidate	IA	NH	MI	NV	SC	FL
Clinton	56	37	3	12	16	11
Obama	81	34	3	10	15	12
Edwards	106	53	3	10	22	7
Richardson	68	73	1	32	17	2
Biden	89	17	1	8	10	2
Dodd	89	60	1	14	13	1
Kucinich	6	22	1	5	4	11
Gravel	1	6	1	2	3	0
Total	496	302	14	81	100	46

And total trips per candidate:

Edwards: 201
Richardson: 193
Dodd: 178
Obama: 155
Clinton: 135
Biden: 127
Kucinich: 49
Gravel: 13

Interesting to note the similarity in approach by both Obama and Clinton. And Clinton has certainly achieved impressive net gains in these early primary states compared with Edwards, who has clocked significant more time in every state (it helps that he doesn't have a job), particularly Iowa. I'm surprised how much time Chris Dodd has spent on the road - particularly for someone who (a) is a sitting US Senator, and (b) is running for Vice President. Ditto Biden (except substitute Secretary of State for Veep).


Now, to the Republicans:

Republican Candidate Trips To Early States

Candidate	IA	NH	MI	SC	FL
Giuliani	31	20	2	15	17
Romney	96	54	11	27	26
Thompson	1	2	0	1	0
McCain	32	30	12	25	14
Huckabee	76	28	0	23	2
Brownback	116	7	0	17	2
Paul	17	12	0	3	0
Tancredo	67	21	0	3	0
Hunter	24	16	1	18	3
Total	460	190	26	135	74

And each candidate's total trips:

Romney: 214
Brownback: 142
Huckabee: 129
McCain: 113
Tancredo: 91
Giuliani: 85
Hunter: 62
Paul: 32
Thompson: 4


Sam Brownback's return on investment is fairly grim here. And look to see less of McCain on the road, now that his campaign's financial concerns have imposed belt-tightening on trips and field operations in these key states. No doubt McCain wishes he's spent less time in Iowa than New Hampshire, which is his key opportunity (as it was in 2000, before his success there induced the Bush folks to run the Straight Talk Express off the road in South Carolina). Finally, Giuliani's doing very well despite relatively little on-site presence.

Last week, I gave a brief explanation of why Fred Thompson should to take a moment to understand pundits' and politicos' puzzled reaction to his late entry. The fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper provides a nice companion narrative to the story told by the numbers above.

One key to campaigning - about which Frederick of Hollywood seems blithely unaware - is that your campaign does not exist in a vacuum. Your competitors' strategies must be taken into account when devising your own. And Thompson's misplaced faith in the magical pony plan of social networks and earned media would be bad enough on its own. But add to that a lack of curiosity about the value his other competitors are acquiring from old-fashioned retail politicking and you have a foolish naivete.

Paul Curtis at the Right's Field samples conservative commentary about Frederick of Hollywood's decision to announce via the web. After Hillary and Obama paved the way for this strategy eight months ago, the bar is pretty high for any stragglers to this now not-new technique. One hopes it won't feel like a replay of a Law & Order episode.