2008 Woodie Awards
Primary elections choose presidential candidates
Issue date: 1/21/08 Section: Op-Ed
In the next few weeks, more and more states will be holding their primaries to select which Republican and which Democratic candidate they want to run for president. As the field narrows, voters and party leaders will begin to decide less and less which candidate they think is best, and more and more which one they think can win. Right now, it seems the Democrats are down to basically two choices, Clinton or Obama. While Edwards remains in the race, it seems his best bet is to again become a running mate since he has not won any primaries and cannot seem to break out from behind Hillary or Obama. On the Republican side, the field is still open for a couple candidates. Romney, McCain and Huckabee have all had major victories in the primary and are running pretty even. Behind them, Giuliani and Thompson have yet to win a primary but seemed determined to hang in as long as they are making news.
The first step for party leaders and voters for picking a winner is to figure out what demographic a candidate appeals to. Republicans present candidates with various offerings. For the evangelical and fanatical, Christian-based Huckabee has taken the Bush model for being overtly, and at times eccentrically, religious. Giuliani has worked very hard to make himself the tough guy, war candidate. McCain is trying hard to make himself the immigration candidate. Romney has by default fallen into the moderate not to hard not too soft candidate. Thompson seems to have not picked an issue. He seems determined to make Republicans think of Ronald Reagan when they think of him. On the other side, Democrats have a choice between the experience of Clinton and the change of Obama. All of the candidates seem to have a good niche with which to draw voters, but all also seem to have glaring faults.
Once they know which voters will vote for a candidate and why, they then have to figure out who will not vote a candidate. This is where the real strategy comes in. For the Republicans, all the faults seem to center around some kind of similarity with the current administration. For McCain and Giuliani, it is their support of the war in Iraq. McCain has been a staunch supporter of the war in the last two years and has caused a drop in his Democratic supporters. Giuliani has not stopped saying 9/11 since it happened, and his inability to say much of anything else has alienated many. Huckabee's aforementioned borrowed strategy of being the evangelical candidate is drawing together as much conservative support as it is causing liberals to run screaming. Romney has flip-flopped so much he is becoming the Republican John Kerry. Finally, Thompson is almost referring to himself as Reagan at this point and that does not make Democrats want to see him in charge anytime soon.
The first step for party leaders and voters for picking a winner is to figure out what demographic a candidate appeals to. Republicans present candidates with various offerings. For the evangelical and fanatical, Christian-based Huckabee has taken the Bush model for being overtly, and at times eccentrically, religious. Giuliani has worked very hard to make himself the tough guy, war candidate. McCain is trying hard to make himself the immigration candidate. Romney has by default fallen into the moderate not to hard not too soft candidate. Thompson seems to have not picked an issue. He seems determined to make Republicans think of Ronald Reagan when they think of him. On the other side, Democrats have a choice between the experience of Clinton and the change of Obama. All of the candidates seem to have a good niche with which to draw voters, but all also seem to have glaring faults.
Once they know which voters will vote for a candidate and why, they then have to figure out who will not vote a candidate. This is where the real strategy comes in. For the Republicans, all the faults seem to center around some kind of similarity with the current administration. For McCain and Giuliani, it is their support of the war in Iraq. McCain has been a staunch supporter of the war in the last two years and has caused a drop in his Democratic supporters. Giuliani has not stopped saying 9/11 since it happened, and his inability to say much of anything else has alienated many. Huckabee's aforementioned borrowed strategy of being the evangelical candidate is drawing together as much conservative support as it is causing liberals to run screaming. Romney has flip-flopped so much he is becoming the Republican John Kerry. Finally, Thompson is almost referring to himself as Reagan at this point and that does not make Democrats want to see him in charge anytime soon.
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