1) The lack of a public campaign.
2) General lack of public knowledge of his credentials, his principals and his goals (except those twisted negatives touted by the Davis campaign and the mainstream media).
3) His public speaking ability.
4) The vague recollection of the families' failures in previous attempts at public office.
4) An almost embarrassasing lack of public support from those nationaly elected members of his own party.
Simon may win but if he does it will not be due to the efforts he has displayed thus far.
It is now almost mid August and the political landscape has remained unchanged ... only Davis can defeat Davis.
From here it looks like he's doing very well at that! (defeating himself)
And I'm not sure what the point of all this pessimism is. Saying "There's no way Simon, that idiot, can win" is not helpful. Saying "Simon can't win now, but if he makes himself more visible, he might" is.
However, I think it's worth bearing in mind that few but political junkies pay much attention to the race until after labor day. As long as Simon is not falling disasterously in the polls, I'd wait to pass judgement on him until then.
I will make one more point: The Davis commercials I have seen on his web site are not likely to give anyone much of an impression of Simon, one way or the other. They are done in such a lifeless way as to leave little, if any, impression behind. So I would not worry about Davis and his ad budget just yet; he's burning up the contents of his warchest to little effect in my view.
D