[don-o]

All this surging and unsurging (desurging?) makes the process look pretty dumb.

A nation that has the Federalist Papers and the Lincoln-Douglas debates in its patrimony now gawks at horse races and beauty contests to select the leader of the free world.

[LS]

Come on, Don-o. If you are as astute in history as you presume to be in your post, then you know that Lincoln wasn't even ON THE GOP BALLOT OF CANDIDATES going into the convention; that it has taken up to 103 ballots to nominate a candidate before; that Kennedy's nomination wasn't locked up even going into the convention.

This is absolutely no different than the "log cabin" campaign of 1840, or the notion that we should vote for "Old Tippecanoe" because he whipped some Indians. This is American politics, and it's the best system in the world.

[org.whodat]

All this surging and unsurging (desurging?) makes the process look pretty dumb.

It does sound a whole lot like a little kid on a float yelling look I am swimming.