You make a good point. Even if he didn't shoulder a lot of the work himself, he did have a good strategy, and executed it very well. I have long contended that without same-day, polling place voter registration, Jesse could not have won. The sort of voters you describe wouldn't have shown up in similar numbers even a day in advance to register and then
again to vote.
Incidentally, on a note of trivia, did you realize that the famous "thinker" ad actually used a body double to play the role of Jesse's body? The only part that was Jesse himself was the closeup of his face at the end when he made his famous wink. He claimed it was because he didn't have the time to film the ad, due to campaigning. Rather implausible. I suspect the real reason was that Jesse wasn't in quite the shape he used to be. Through clever ads like that one he was able to keep his Herculean physical image in people's minds. Little things like that definitely matter in a close election (though that doesn't imply very nice things about the voting public).
We moved to Missouri in July, 2001.
I didn't know the "thinker" ad was not Jessie the Body.
I recall the newspapers and WCCO's polls put Jessie ahead the day after this ad ran. I don't know if it motivated me. I was already certain that I would vote for Ventura over Coleman--probably the best man to become Gov.