An Unconventional 2008 Election Season

Primetime Politics ^ | May 17, 2008 | Michael Barone

[Nony]

What makes this presidential election different from all other presidential elections? And different from what we expected when the year began?

First, neither party’s presumptive nominee was chosen by massive support from primary voters, as John Kerry was in 2004, George W. Bush in 2000 or Bill Clinton in 1992.

That may not seem obvious in the case of John McCain, who effectively clinched the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. But look at the numbers: In January, McCain won New Hampshire 37 percent to 32 percent, South Carolina 33 to 30 percent and Florida 36 to 31 percent. On Super Tuesday, he won more than 50 percent only in states that were essentially uncontested: Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. He won Missouri by only 33 percent to 32 percent and California by only 42 percent to 35 percent, but won big delegate margins because of Republicans’ winner-take-all rules.

McCain’s strategy from July 2007 was to count on the other Republican candidates’ strategies to fail. That was risky. But it worked. Republicans have accepted his victory because they’re temperamentally inclined to fall in line and because it became obvious that he was the candidate with the best chance to win in the fall. But McCain was not really a consensus choice.

[LS]

My only reference is that 90% of the uber-liberals that I know call themselves “moderates.” People who have never voted Republican in their life call themselves “moderates.” The only libs I know who call themselves libs are people you and I would consider “fringe” Kucinich-type voters.

[LS]

Yes. This is, unfortunately, part of Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” message. But it’s reality, and we need to adapt and overcome.

[neverdem]

ping