My best birthday present in 2016 will come

[MineralMan]

shortly before my 71st birthday. This year's 47th Democratic National Convention will take place from Monday 25 July - Thursday 28 July, 2016. Once it's finished, we will have a Democratic candidate for President. At that point, we can all come together and begin the difficult work of helping that candidate defeat whoever the Republicans field from their clown car of candidates.

Make no mistake: It's going to be a difficult General Election campaign. It always is, really. To win, we will have to turn out Democratic voters efficiently and in large numbers. We will need to forget the factionalism of the primary campaign, accept the nominee as the choice of Democratic voters and work our collective butts off to win.

I'll be out there in my own area. I hope everyone will put their energy into that effort. So much depends on that.

[malthaussen]

1. Should Mrs Clinton win...

... her campaign will have enormous work to do to energize voters and get them to yank the lever for her. There's a danger, here, I think, that if they succeed in fighting off the challenge from Mr Sanders, they will drop into complacency or lassitude from battle fatigue. This the Party cannot afford, yet the "damage control" argument only works with those who see its merit, and is not effective at all for generating enthusiasm.

OTOH, the Sanders campaign has yet to demonstrate that it has enough time and resources to muster the kind of broad-based support in less-friendly areas to mobilize sufficient numbers (especially of the Millennial demo) to win the nomination, nevermind the general. Which doesn't mean that they can't, just that they need to keep working very hard. I don't, right now, consider that complacency is a threat to that campaign, but they still may have difficulties in visibility and overcoming inertia, to say nothing of convincing skeptics that their candidate can take the election.

But the Clinton camp failing to do the necessary work is a real possibility IMO, especially in that it was supposed to be a cakewalk to begin with, and few of her supporters signed on for a hard grind. Setting aside the relative merits and appeal of either candidate, I think the Sanders team has the advantage in resolve and determination, which can carry over into the General Election if circumstances call for it.

-- Mal

[MineralMan]

2. Whoever the nominee is, I'll be out there.

I am for every election, especially in presidential election years. I walk my precinct and talk to as many people here as I can. It's what I do.