Rubio relying on charisma, message, and volunteers in early states

"[Chip Felkel, a South Carolina Republican strategist who isn't affiliated with any campaign,] said,  "If Trump-mania subsides, you’ve got to have a mechanism and a structure...I think you’re being risky if you don’t put a structure in place."

...The quarterly report released Thursday shows Rubio's doing just fine in terms of cash-on-hand at the moment -- he's sitting on $9.7 million cash-on-hand for the primary season, trailing Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz and Bush in cash heading into the last three months of 2015. (Frontrunner Donald Trump has pledged to primarily self-finance his campaign)...

...There's little margin for error for a candidate who isn't cash-flush — after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada vote in February, there's a burst of Southern primaries on March 1, and then the do-or-die Florida primary on March 15 — a map that will require a more vigorous
fundraising operation than Rubio has showed so far.

..."With 54 full-time staffers, our campaign team is smaller than some other presidential campaigns," Rubio's website reads, describing a "lean" operation. "That means we rely heavily on volunteer support whenever possible."

..."The right message coming from the party’s best messenger is as effective a turnout machine as anything you can put together," said Sadosky. "I can also say that Conservative Solutions PAC stands ready to provide the support needed to ensure that Marco’s message is heard by voters in the early states.""

-Kyle Cheney, Politico

  http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/rubio-wake-up-call-214890

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How important are New Hampshire and Iowa in the grand scheme? It seems likely that Trump or Carson will be the winners, so is Rubio keeping his powder dry against the time of Trump's or Carson's possible decline? Might it work better for Rubio to hang back and "make an entrance" as the time draws nearer? According to this article, Rubio has spent three weeks combined in Iowa and New Hampshire, while badly trailing Christie has spent an entire six weeks in New Hampshire alone.