Should "Electability" Matter in Primary Season?

Featured Topic | Posted 26 weeks 5 days ago

Should "Electability" Matter in Primary Season?

One challenge for Iowans attending the caucuses on Thursday is finding a candidate who can win in November. It's called "electability," and it's an issue in both parties. It's wise to make the ability to win a general election a factor in deciding which candidate to support. After all, what good does it do to support someone who can't go the distance? For some caucus-goers with little loyalty to a party, it's fine to "make a statement" by supporting a candidate who has little chance of winning but would "send a message" to the world by doing well.

Ron beats Rudy?

Opinion Journal

For several hours last Sunday, more than a dozen Ron Paul volunteers stood in snowdrifts in the rain outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester waving at last-minute Christmas shoppers and handing out hundreds of yards signs.

The campaign doesn't know how many people participated because, as with so many Paul rallies, this one was organized entirely by fans not officially associated with the campaign.

That spontaneous grassroots support is why Mr. Paul, an obstetrician from Lake Jackson, Texas, could pull off a stunner on Jan. 8 and place third in New Hampshire's Republican primary. If he does, he would embarrass Rudy Giuliani and steal media limelight from John McCain and Mitt Romney, who are battling for first place.

America has a clear-cut choice: the candidates of hope or fear

Times Online (UK)

In the chaotic, colourful, cathartic American primary campaign of the past few months, it has in the end come down to a clarifying choice.

In a completely open field – with no incumbent president or vice-president running and both Republicans and Democrats casting about in a newly fluid ideological world – two fundamental emotions have bubbled to the surface. In the final few days before the first critical contest in Iowa, the race is between hope and fear.