I'm rather late to this 2009 book by President Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, whose title of course echoes The Audacity of Hope. The Audacity to Win is a well-written account of the primary and general election campaigns and will be essential reading for people involved in practical politics and students of politics alike. It's actually a thoroughly enjoyable read – I almost missed my train station, so gripping was I finding it.

Plouffe explains the strategy and tactics clearly, and is especially interesting on the interaction between the Obama campaign's famed success with online fundraising and engagement and the conventional campaign tools. He insists that the astonishing number of supporters and fundraisers they reached online was the result of the effort they put into building up an old-fashioned grassroots campaign of volunteers in the real world. The two spheres were complements, not substitutes. An interesting point for all those in politics who hope to harness the magic dust of the internet for themselves.

There's a lot of detail in the book, but the messages boil down to a few simple ones:

Find your strategy, and stick to it. Make all decisions in the light of the strategy, don't waste time on tactical ducking and diving.

Make sure your allocation of time and effort echoes your priorities.

Be authentic; fight through nonsense in the press and negative campaigning by opponents by telling your own story, resisting the temptation to retaliate. Oh, and point out when others' moves are merely tactical.

Organize, organize, organize, and get your supporters to do the same. Be out in shopping centres, knocking on doors, doing all that traditional legwork.

If you 'can't win' an election, get out new voters.

These are so straightforward that the only conclusion you can draw in the end about successful campaigning is that it's a lot of work. As in so many areas of life, ideas are easy but implementation is really hard.