According to a Washington Post analysis, the “GOP Got More Bang For Its Billion.” In the most expensive presidential contest in the nation’s history, John F. Kerry and his Democratic supporters nearly matched President Bush and the Republicans, who outspent them by just $60 million, $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion.

This Washington Post article tells why President Bush won re-election. In a word, it was “strategery.” From the moment he took office in 2000, he started planning his re-election bid. And it is perhaps most important to note that he did so by thinking outside of the box. Notice the big difference between his emphasis and that of others:

In 2001, Dowd said that “we made some of the basic strategic assumptions about what we thought the election would look like.”

One fundamental calculation was that 93 percent of the voting-age public was already committed or predisposed toward the Democratic or Republican candidate, leaving 7 percent undecided.

Another calculation was that throughout the Bush presidency, “most voters looked at Bush in very black-and-white terms. They either loved and respected him, or they didn’t like him,” Dowd said. Those voters were unlikely to change their views before Election Day 2004.

That prompted Republicans to jettison their practice of investing 75 to 90 percent of campaign money on undecided voters. Instead, half the money went into motivating and mobilizing people already inclined to vote for Bush, but who were either unregistered or who often failed to vote – “soft” Republicans.

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