The opening (this is the part the AI does cope with):
The best race/poltical party I've found for this so far has been Human/Technologists. I buy a factory first thing on Earth, then queue up a couple of labs, then another factory, then a morale boost, then a econ boost, then a farm (leaving a space or two blank if I remember). I crank taxes and spending on the first turn, and lock my research rate somewhere between 40 and 50 percent. I go into the ship-builder and scrap all the core ships (the core ships cost more and do less, always: compare a cargo + 2x basic support + 2x hyperdrive + 1 colony module to the default colony ship. It costs like 4bc more, but it's 1pc faster and has like .8 more range). The initial colony goes to Mars if there's nothing immediately better, and I rush-build custom scouts for the first couple of turns: I'll manually scout for planets with 2 or 3, and have another couple on auto-explore to turn up resources. I focus on not overextending myself too much in the rush, if I don't find a better colony pretty quickly Earth becomes the tech capital, and one or two more become manufacturing capitals. Filler (PQ6 or worse usually) colonies get nothing but labs built on them, and I only seriously defend them if I hold better planets in the same system; if I'm not defending them I'll pillage everything and move out most of the colonists with colony/troop ships if the AI makes a move on them)
I don't really have a set path, but my targets are Impulse Engines (Mk II+ if I can spare the time), Sensors Mk. IV, Deflectors, and as far up either the beam or mass driver tree as I can get. (Digression: is it me, or does the AI always start with missles, then go to lasers by M05 or so, then stick with lasers until at least M10). I sell everything possible to minor races, but usually won't sell current (or even close-to-current) military tech to the other majors. Lastly, the lynchpin to this strategy and so important it deserves a sentance all to itself, is something the AI doesn't pay proper respect to at all: the Starbase Projection line.
Meanwhile, all of my starbases are cranking constructors, all the time, unless I have a good reason to build something else. The constructors build the Webs of Doom (overlapping military starbases) around my borders (and by my borders I mean immediately around my colonies / resources that aren't surrounded by more of my stuff). If i run out of upgrades to the current line, I start filling in another line behind or in front of them. I don't really build them on a rigid pattern: my goal is to have 3 or so overlapping any given area near my colony/resource. I don't put any attack or defense on them, just starship boosts.
I build the military up like so: initially my colonies are stuffed with crappy, core model Defenders. I'll start building ships with at least 3pc speed and around 4 attack/2 defense -- these'll be the best things I could build a couple-dozen turns after the initial goldrush part of the game). I build enough ships to have a couple of complete fleets covering every colony/resource cluster. Meanwhile, I build Eyes of the Universe as soon as I can, which means I see everything. My contigency plan if one of the AIs builds it is to build sensor boats, but I've never had to do that.
Then, I unleash the trap and scrap all my crappy defenders en masse, and watch my "Military" ranking plummet and my bottom line skyrocket, meanwhile my new fleets of 4-5 ships that "really" have 20 missle attack and 10 shield defense (1 type) have an effective attack of something like 80/100/80 and an effective defense that's even crazier. However, the AI doesn't recognize this, and lunges in for the "easy" kill. I'll have to see how this goes post-patch, with the added mobility they might be able to swarm me effectively, or they might actually recognize the ludicrous might the Web of Doom + my mobility gives me and not swarm me like starving locusts. Unfortunately (for them), as it is now, one (or more, or all of them, which is why I trade with minor races or pick an "ally") start making demands, and declare war after a couple of refusals. Then I just sit and wait for the tide of enemy ships to roll in, and start up the slaughter when they move into range of my starbases. The AI doesn't seem to recognize it's fighting a very one-sided war (and it's on the wrong side), and usually cripples its economy/research pumping out wave after wave of target practice for ships that'd admittedly be only slightly better in a fair fight, but are completely invincible in the Web of Doom(tm). I then cherry pick what I want resource/colony wise from my would be conquerors (usually I roll out a new generation of ships just for the attack), and eventually sell them peace for the low, low price of everything they have in their treasury + any techs they have I don't.
As long as I make it to the middle of the game, this hasn't failed me yet.