The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics
The Political Campaign Desk Reference Book Review
Ty Wagner
Tactics vs. Strategy
The beginning of the Political Campaign Desk Reference by Michael Mcnamara starts off with insightful and incisive comment about campaigns. Campaigns must first deliberate and create a strategy before choosing the tactics that will prove most effective in conveying the chosen strategy. As Mcnamara states, “tactics should never be confused with being the plan. Tactics are the methods by which the campaign plan is executed. The strategy is the plan for the use of the tactics, and this strategy should be well though out.” Many of the readings from this semester, and especially our discussions in class have fell into this trap. Our confusion of strategy and tactic seems especially true when we talk about the increasing roles of new technologies in campaigns. We often speak of tactics such as micro targeting of voters, online ads or social media as overall strategies, when in truth they are only tactics that are effective when used to further a strategy. These new developments are tactics that may subtly influence strategy but could never be effective strategies on their own.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Unfortunately, Mcnamara falls into his very own trap. He quickly becomes bogged down in tactics and doesn’t provide nearly enough context as to how each tactic compliments or shapes strategy. One early example is Mcnamara’s analysis of strength and weaknesses. Mcnamara describes the importance of evaluating your own and the opposing candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. I agree that this is an extremely important part of building a campaigns strategy. While Mcnamara did state that some traits can be portrayed as both strengths and weaknesses, I believe that he missed the more important point. The most useful information a campaign can have is how the strengths and weaknesses will impact strategy decisions. Nearly all personality traits, actions and beliefs can be construed as a
Ty Wagner
Tactics vs. Strategy
The beginning of the Political Campaign Desk Reference by Michael Mcnamara starts off with insightful and incisive comment about campaigns. Campaigns must first deliberate and create a strategy before choosing the tactics that will prove most effective in conveying the chosen strategy. As Mcnamara states, “tactics should never be confused with being the plan. Tactics are the methods by which the campaign plan is executed. The strategy is the plan for the use of the tactics, and this strategy should be well though out.” Many of the readings from this semester, and especially our discussions in class have fell into this trap. Our confusion of strategy and tactic seems especially true when we talk about the increasing roles of new technologies in campaigns. We often speak of tactics such as micro targeting of voters, online ads or social media as overall strategies, when in truth they are only tactics that are effective when used to further a strategy. These new developments are tactics that may subtly influence strategy but could never be effective strategies on their own.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Unfortunately, Mcnamara falls into his very own trap. He quickly becomes bogged down in tactics and doesn’t provide nearly enough context as to how each tactic compliments or shapes strategy. One early example is Mcnamara’s analysis of strength and weaknesses. Mcnamara describes the importance of evaluating your own and the opposing candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. I agree that this is an extremely important part of building a campaigns strategy. While Mcnamara did state that some traits can be portrayed as both strengths and weaknesses, I believe that he missed the more important point. The most useful information a campaign can have is how the strengths and weaknesses will impact strategy decisions. Nearly all personality traits, actions and beliefs can be construed as a