by shamanic
McClatchy's David Lightman begins an election story today with the statement "there's no frontrunner" and goes from there. I love it.
Mercifully, he devotes all of one sentence to the old "electability" saw. I find the electability argument to largely be hogwash. The circularity of the thought "I'm going to elect this person because he's (or she's) electable" is simply disappointing in this nation that launched democracy in the modern era, and the plethora of "electable" candidates in the race makes it a stupid thing to get hung up about.
The large numbers of voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire means that the country may be treated to an actual competitive and interesting primary race, despite the state parties' hard work to make it brief and uneventful. I saw yesterday that Ron Paul intends to be competitive through Super Tuesday with a $12M fourth-quarter windfall, so it seems to me that we could end up with a substantive discussion in this race yet.
What I like about Lightman's article is that it's about voters and their process rather than the candidates. For a look at why political coverage so often tilts the opposite way, check out Mark Halperin's column today, "How 'What It Takes' Took Me Off Course".
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