Reply #8: Interesting [View All]

[PATRICK]

There have been nominees who were put on notice at the convention that their cause was doomed. Goldwater even asked what in blazes he was even running for then. Mondale knew though he took a fair shot demolishing a fumbling Reagan in the first debate(was told then that was not enough either). In the second debate it looked like someone had switched makeup kits and gutshot Mondale.

The trouble usually is the other candidates would not have fared much better and the chaos would have spread down the line to local races. Most candidate fields have not been as strong with viable options as this one, with a few candidates not exactly given a chance to be dumped by the electorate. The Dems this time would find it easier to field an emergency candidate if the the top guy was felled physically. The GOP has the real problem. No one has been allowed to come up for air and the bitter factionalism that would ensue would be worse than among their rivals. A good candidate would be no shill and a shill would sink them worse than Bush who still has his idiot fans.

However this whole question is framed in the atmosphere of a total loss of nerve and common sense over the latest Rove Drudge gambit- a pretty dumb and desperate ineffectual one at that except for how it has tested nerves in places like this.