Why a protracted race to the convention is GOOD for Democrats....

[scheming daemons]

Those of you who don't like conflict and want this to be "over tomorrow" don't get it. If this thing drags out until the summer, it HELPS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

1. Ground organizations get set up in ALL 50 states and are engaged. The GOP ground games are sitting around doing nothing.

2. Debates, like last thursday, CONTINUE to occur. Free advertising in front of millions of Americans where the Democratic messages gets out without any response from the GOP. The "Texas" debate.. the "Ohio" debate.. the "PA" debate... and so on.

3. States that normally have no role... i.e PA and Ohio... have a critical say this time, which means more Democrats getting registered, more voters paying attention to the Democratic message in more states. The extra attention to the Dem race in Ohio might mean enough more Democratic registrations to tip the balance in that state in November.

4. The Democratic convention in Denver will be the most watched political convention in the history of the United States. The GOP convention in Minnesota will be an afterthought and largely ignored.

5. Republicans will have less time to attack our nominee before November, since they won't waste precious ad-buy money going after a candidate that they might not even be facing. They will have to wait until the Democratic nominee is decided to go on the full attack. The "swiftboaters-in-waiting" will have to sit on their powder all through the summer and won't be able to ramp up until August.

6. Every week that this race goes on will be another week in which the Democratic party dominates the news cycles. The GOP will be grasping for any media time, because nobody will be interested in their race. Look at this past week! 75% of the talk on the news channels is about the Democratic race... there is usually several minutes of talk about our race, followed by an "oh by the way, in the GOP race..."

Some people don't like "conflict" and can't stand Democrats yelling at each other. But that is a small price to pay for the enormous positives in the 6 items above.

I hope the delegate race is a tie after Tuesday!

[Tempest]

1. It keeps interest high

And canvassers energized.

I agree, this is a good thing.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. I hadn't thought of it that way! You're totally correct!

We are getting free advertising without the input of the GOP! I love it!!

[TooBigaTent]

3. Agree, agree, agree. If only the candidates would raise their rhetoric level,

focus on how their administration would reverse the Bush agenda, and save their nastiness for the general election.

If only their supporters would focus on the enemy and treat each other as teammates with slightly different mathods.

To use an analogy from yesterday - the NYG's offense and defense can argue about who is more responsible for the victory, but do not tear down each other.

[scheming daemons]

4. In your analogy....

...are the Edwards supporters the Special Teams?

;-)

[TooBigaTent]

6. Yes. And DK was the spotter in the booth but his communications to the bench were

never heard.

[OHdem10]

5. Political Experts contradict this theory.

The party who shows they have been able to secure their
Leader Camdidate is able to project inevitability and
their party looks strong and in charge while the other
begins to appear weak and indecisive.

Susan Estridge explained this over the weekend.

[TooBigaTent]

7. Political Expert and Susan Estridge do not belong in the same sentence. nt

[scheming daemons]

8. Three things in response

A) The next time Susan Estridge is right about anything related to political theory, it will be the first time. She thought Dukakis was "inevitable" because of the 18-point lead he had in the summer of 1988. She has repeatedly bet on the wrong horse almost every election cycle. If she says something, the truth is pretty much 180 degrees opposite.


B) This year's race has gone against the "conventional wisdom" at every turn.


C) The Democratic race in 1960 wasn't decided until late summer. Nixon had the GOP nomination sewn up much earlier. How'd that year turn out?