A meeting of Clinton precinct captains in Nevada (Credit Zack Exley)

If you read nothing else about the Democratic race today, read Zack Exley’s riveting account of Clinton’s precinct organization in Nevada.

The Clinton campaign, with the Romney campaign as a runner-up, is the campaign that most reminds me of Bush-Cheney ‘04, with its focus on metrics, accountability, and long-term planning. Clinton arguably won both New Hampshire and Nevada on the back of a second-to-none field operation. In New Hampshire, the Clinton field team (led by the legendary Michael Whouley) knocked-and-dragged its way to a surprise victory with blue-collar voters in Manchester and Nashua.

This is yet another example of volunteer grassroots beating paid or rented grassroots (the Culinary Workers). At the end of the day, Local 226 wasn’t even able to deliver the casino precincts.

Unfortunately, the Republican race hasn’t seen as much of this kind of activity because of low fundraising, a jumbled calendar, and shifting polling. (How can you do microtargeting if you don’t know whether you’ll be placing 1st or 5th in a state two months out?) The Democrats have been able to concentrate greater resources on four essentially small states.

Regardless, the piece is a clear reminder of how this stuff is done — and a warning for November.