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Well, yes. But there needs to be a little organization, don't you think?

I think the system will break in an unorganized fashion.

Someone will run for President, perhaps in 2008, if not, in 2012 without doubt, and win.

That someone will attract candidates at the next House election, who will run against the incumbents, and win.

I'm not sure an "organization" can get this done, certainly not a FEC-compliant organization.

I'm a veteran of the 1967 and early 1968 McCarthy insurrection. Between New Hampshire and Oregon, you could almost feel the system breaking. I suppose in my old age, I'm feeling nostalgic.

The right guy, and the right issue, it can happen.

...the 1967 and early 1968 McCarthy insurrection. Between New Hampshire and Oregon, you could almost feel the system breaking....

That's an interesting case. McCarthy managed to take down LBJ. But he didn't make it far enough himself, the Democrat party put up Humphrey, and we ended up with Nixon. And the primary system was entirely overhauled not long after, partly because of that fiasco of a season.

A similar scenario on the right, today, would have an upstart candidate upset whoever the leader appears to be in early primaries, but then not make it over the top himself, and have the Repub party put up some reliable hack, only to be defeated by Hillary (who is a perfect clone of Nixon).

However, that's very unlikely, mainly because of the latest revision of the primary system. There's less chance of any major upsets in 2008 because the compression of the schedule means only the top fundraisers will have a prayer.

But maybe there are different lessons we should be drawing from 1968? Maybe I am taking the wrong points because I know little about the details of that year's primaries? Please tell us more about what you saw happen in 1968, of the system breaking and so on. That year really was the collapse of the Democrats after which they had to remake themselves (but didn't improve any). What should we learn?