Permanent campaign

[3] In it, he explained how the changes in American politics from old-style patronage and party organization to that based on the modern technology of computer driven polling and media created a fundamentally new system.

He explained that political consultants had replaced the party bosses and brought with them a new model by which campaigning became the forms of governing.

In his recent study The Permanent Campaign, Sidney Blumenthal has advanced the argument that a critical realignment in fact occurred at about the point—1968—where many analysts had been expecting.

[4]Strategies of this nature have been in active development and use since Lyndon Johnson, where priority is given to short term tactical gain over long-term vision.

"Essentially," Caddell wrote, "it is my thesis governing with public approval requires a continuing political campaign.

In the words of columnist Joe Klein, "The pressure to 'win' the daily news cycle—to control the news—has overwhelmed the more reflective, statesmanlike aspects of the office.

"[11] ThinkProgress observed that "Since his inauguration, the administration has operated in a state of permanent campaign, with no hint of the usual honeymoon hiatus during which newly-elected presidents typically pause to focus exclusively on governing and to hone their policy priorities.