The criticism that is always leveled at military planners is their insistence on preparing for the last war, not the next one.  In other words, rather than developing strategies for a new battlefield, they are locked into the strategies that were useful on the old one.  The same danger lurks in the shadows for political strategists.  A good politician is looking forward and preparing for the next campaign, not the last one.  This story in the Boston Globe indicates that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is trying to avoid this pitfall by preparing his campaign for battle in the blogosphere (HT: Political Wire and Hugh Hewitt).

Romney's a force to be reckoned with.  His campaign is already moving fast and carving out a niche.  Missteps by the Giuliani or McCain campaigns--assuming, of course, that Giuliani and McCain officially run--will likely be capitalized on immediately by the Romney camp.  If he counterpunches as effectively as he strategizes, the favorites are in for a long road to the convention.  And these political instincts may be just what the GOP needs to head off a Democratic Party energized by their victories in 2006.