Vote strategyThe Bush campaign's election victory marks a strategic triumph for one man's ruthless and iconoclastic approach to ground-level politics. In the last days of the race, a smile rarely left the face of Karl Rove, the president's chief strategist, and now his upbeat mood has been justified.
Convinced his candidate could have pulled off an easy win in 2000 if only more faithful Republicans had turned up at the polls, Mr Rove vowed to challenge the Democrats' traditional status as the party pre-eminent at getting out the vote.
Over the past four years, he built up a volunteer network of more than 300,000 people in a pyramid system, linking workers in individual precincts to national party strategists.
During the campaign, individual "precinct captains" received instructions from party headquarters, so that, for example, a specific anti-Kerry message put forward in a local or national TV ad, could be rammed home on the doorsteps within hours.
Mr Rove made no secret of the fact that the operation was modelled on "multi-level marketing schemes". Volunteer "team leaders" who recruited more people were rewarded with gifts, such as signed notes from Mr Bush.
The Democratic party, in an effort to meet the challenge, had organised the largest army of paid turnout workers in US presidential history, in addition to thousands of volunteers. But it may transpire that the Bush campaign received an extra edge by placing its grassroots fate in the hands of people with a strong personal commitment to the president.
"It's love and belief in the importance of the president," Mr Ken Mehlman, the Bush campaign manager, claimed in an interview with the New York Times recently.
"You can't, in politics and in almost anything you do, force people to do anything. They have to want to do it."
As a result, the long queues during Tuesday's election seem to have helped Mr Bush as much as Mr Kerry, undermining the perceived wisdom that a surge in turnout automatically delivers an advantage to the challenger.
Mr Rove also defied tradition by galvanising the party's conservative, religious base, ignoring critics who argued a more centrist position would be required to carry the country.
"Bush never tilted towards the centre. This was a very conservative administration which based its actions on a strategy of keeping its base energised and happy," said pollster Mr John Zogby.
In Florida, special local dynamics may have helped seal Mr Bush's 52 per cent to 47 per cent victory there.
Governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had been perceived as being under intense pressure to "bring Florida home" after the debacle of 2000. While election-day improprieties seemed to be at a minimum there, critics argued Jeb Bush had politicised the state's election apparatus, and that his personal ruling on many pre-election issues might have reduced Tuesday's turnout.