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The perils of being a frontrunner — 8 Comments

  1. Here in Connecticut the Ned Lamont/Joe Lieberman race shows it well. The primary was commandeered (for lack of a better word) by the Netroots. So the Democrats got very left wing nominees for Senator and Governor. Both lost badly in an election that should have favored democrats. So what happened was most Dems lost their votes.

    The progressives intent in pushing primaries early last century was to ultimately obtain a European like two-round election system (again Louisiana is the only state with this unique system here). But since you are only nominating a party candidate it is not a true two round system.

    Unsuprisingly, the old system that required cultivation of party members around the country produced a pretty good set of choices (Lincoln in his second term for example).

  2. S M O K E and M I R R O R S — “those “smoke-filled rooms,” the conventions of long ago. The candidates were chosen very close to the election itself. ”

    With all smoke-filled rooms now banned perhaps it is the case that candidates are chosen very far from the election itself.

    But I’m just paranoid.

  3. Dear Neo,

    Actually, the first election decided by primaries was 1960 when JFK made his splash in West Virginia. He was the first major party candidate nominated against the wishes of the party pros. TV made it possible. TV won him the election. Remember Nixon’s “five o’clock shadow”? I do.

    Here’s to the old way. Which, by the way, is still prevalent in most most elections for offices other than the presidency. It is almost impossible for people to accurately assess the character and capabilities of candidates through the sound bites and gotcha’s we see today.

    In the good old days the candidates were selected by people who had risen to leadership positions in party politics who knew the candidates long and personally. They put forward the person who they judged to be most capable of implementing the party’s platform.

    Platforms are now extinct. They were wonderful documents which spelled out in detail the positions on all of the relevant issues. We now know the candidates’ positions on only those issues that You-Tube or the Des Moines Register deigns to discuss. It’s more entertaining – like in Hollywood. I don’t think it is an improvement.

    Regards,
    Roy

  4. What gets lost in the media frenzy is that the candidates are competing for delegates to the conventions. That may seem arcane these days but that’s still how the nomination process works. It’s very possible for a candidate to do badly in the first contests but still pick up a majority or big chunk of the delegates.

  5. Two observations: (1) when you are the lead dog, everybody wants to take a bite out of you. (2) Just because your ass is bleeding, doesn’t make you the lead dog.

  6. I watch this process with an extreme amount of frustration. The Media seems to pick a few canidates on either side and gives them tons of free press while mostly ignoring the other guys. This happens to both sides. Senator Clinton and Senator McCain have been getting free press for years. I would love to see a debate where the “frontrunners” were not invited. Who would I not invite? On the Dem side: Senators Clinton and Obama and maybe Edwards. On the Republican Side: Guiliani, McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Thompson. Then maybe we could here from Kuichinic(Sp?) , Biden (Isn’t he running?) Richardson (Still in?) Paul, Hunter and Tancredo. Is there a green party this time? Invite them. Does the Constitution party have a national canidate yet? Invite them. Do the libertarians have someone? (Besides R. Paul who is running as a Republican) Invite them. etc.
    The media picks. I am sick of it.
    Just to show you how out of hand this thing is, do you realize that the moderator of the Republican debate on Univision was not even an American Citizen? His name was Jorge Ramos. He is a white, blue eyed Mexican National. Is this a job we cannot find an American Citizen to do?
    I guess with the NAU on the way, we will just get more and more of this.
    See this link about the univision debate: http://www.vdare.com/awall/071210_memo.htm

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