More "Politics of Polarization" Roundup

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math

The indominable Oliver Willis says that increasing the perception that Democrats "stand for something" is just a matter of not flitting from issue to issue. There's something to that; both the Kerry and Gore campaigns did a lot of flitting. So, less of that, please. I do want to make a bit of a dissent here; the Kerry campaign was not constantly trying to make nicey-nice with the press. They prioritized press relations in this order: local TV, local newspaper, Post/Times, network news, USA today, cable news. That is, more or less, the proper prioritization, when one considers that a huge number of newspapers decide what to put in the local papers based on what's in the New York Times (though, whoever kept leaking anonymously-sourced snark to the Times needs to find a new line of work).

Kevin Drum is unimpressed. He claims that Galston and Kamarck say we need to avoid the trap of policy literalism, but then fall into the trap of policy literalism itself (by, for instance, suggest that we de-emphasize diplomacy and emphasize military force, and moderate on social issues). He also suggests Evan Bayh should be the next nominee, though not in so many words. That's not a bad idea, in terms of winning elections. But there is a good chance that Mark Warner, Wes Clark, or John Edwards might do the trick too.