But there is also a more subtle story about the creation of a political machine.
He also has full command of the most efficient White House political machine in recent memory.
It cannot be easy competing with Mr Forbes's millions and Mr Bush's extraordinary political machine.
Where once Mr Bush's political machine seemed invincible, now it cannot get anything right.
But he will not run, because he won't take on the political machine assembled by Sen.
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Will he use unions as coercion arms as the PRI's political machine did in the past?
The other guy's been running bigger and bigger cogs in the Chicago political machine his entire adult life.
In Chicago he got on well with everybody, from the local teachers' unions to the Daley political machine.
Mr D'Amato has survived so far because he knows better than most how to run a political machine.
"The Political Machine 2012" is designed to be balanced, making it equally challenging for candidates of both major parties.
Though the Brotherhood played little role in the revolution, its well-honed political machine succeeded in getting its supporters to the polls.
If his election slate does better than expected, Mr. Binay will have shown his vote-getting prowess and fine-tuned his political machine.
Mr Susilo lacks the strong political machine of Miss Megawati's PDI-P and of Golkar, Suharto's former party, which has backed Mr Wiranto.
Everyone else is nowhere, including the leaders of Golkar, once the political machine of the ex-dictator Suharto and still the largest party in parliament.
Mr Duhalde retains control over this political machine, which he deployed to help Mr Kirchner defeat his arch-enemy Carlos Menem, Argentina's president from 1989-99.
Almost half of Mr Kirchner's votes came from the sprawling province of Buenos Aires, suggesting that Mr Duhalde's longstanding political machine there is still well oiled.
Obama said Wednesday he scored a "big victory" on Tuesday and that he was overcoming Clinton's "political machine" that made her the front-runner in every race.
Simply put, many in Congress are afraid of the political machine that is Norquist, understanding that crossing him publicly could be the political kiss of death.
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Because the governor appoints a majority of its board, the rubbish-collection body has long been thought of in Hartford as a key component of his political machine.
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Mr McCain is also up against a formidable political machine.
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"That'd be insane not to use this in some capacity to govern, " said Matt Lewis, a conservative blogger with AOL's Political Machine and a writer for conservative Web site Townhall.com.
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The Democratic Party has also revamped its political machine.
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But capping a trend that began in the 1980s, the committee now is the center of action in the current fight for the House, a modern-day equivalent of the old-fashioned political machine.
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Mr Santorum began the race in Ohio with a big lead in the opinion polls, but Mr Romney's well-funded political machine overcame him in part through a heavy campaign of attack adverts.
This latest scandal may spell the end for the political machine built by Paulo Maluf, a conservative populist who was variously the city's mayor and Sao Paulo's state governor during Brazil's military government of 1964-85.
But the districts in general have seen their reputations swing dramatically from innovative inner-city rejuvenator to budget sham of the political machine, thanks largely to the reporting of Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader.
After her brush with the political machine, she says that she hopes that the general election will allow schools to be discussed in a way that reflects the complex reality, rather than simplistic party positions.
The lesson is clear: at this stage in American history, the noble ideal of a government that serves all and protects the conditions that give rise to a healthy economy has a hard time prevailing against a political machine that focuses its energies on the single-minded goal of using federal favors to buy enough votes to win.
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Squaring that with the political demands of Mr Vasquez's clientelist machine may become increasingly hard.
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At stake are two political traditions: the old, working-class machine politics personified by Mr Martinez, and a middle-class reformist trend represented by Dade County's mayor, Alex Penelas.
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