nominations

There is a herding mentality in American primary elections. The outcomes are decided quickly. Part of this is a result of pressure from the media to pick someone (which will then center on somebody else to make it all more exciting). You see this when straw polls a year or two out receive major news coverage.

Perhaps part of it is because voters take their responsibilities seriously, and so instead of pining for none of the above or gosh, I wish there was somebody else, they are prioritizing and selecting based on who's on the ballot and who they think best represents them.

I still haven't gotten the Indiana system down to understand how we nominate or pick presidential candidates, but I assume that by the time we do get to choose, the race will be long over.

As folks are writing down Howard Dean's obituary, I hesitate to pile on by providing a late compliment, but I do believe he deserves credit for challenging the President when nobody else would or could do so, of not being afraid to speak his mind on a number of issues, and for providing some gumption to the rest of the nominees, particularly Senator Kerry.

It looks like Kerry will be the nominee. And while I still assume that Bush will win (and pay no attention to this, I've always been doom and gloom about elections), I think Kerry has an opportunity to seriously challenge the President who described himself as a uniter, not a divider, but who has proven anything but.