In my earlier post, someone asked a very good question:
I don’t really understand how it hurts the Democrats to not have a
nominee yet? It shows how much the Democrats are involved in this
election and wanting things to change.
Let me take a moment to explain further why it’s harmful for Democrats to have a long, drawn out nomination for our candidate.
During the primaries the candidates are focusing on winning the nod of their party. That means they are campaigning to the base and trying to rally them behind their platform. This phase of the fight is over for McCain. Now he doesn’t have to worry about playing “the most conservative”, instead he can focus on getting voters from the Democratic side along with, and the most important, the independent vote.
While McCain is out doing that we will still have Obama and Clinton out trying to cut down one another. Independents won’t pay as much attention to that, and everything used by each campaign will get echoed by McCain, who now has a much larger audience.
Now I know some people are thinking “but McCain needs the conservatives”. That isn’t entirely true. If McCain needed the conservatives so badly, we wouldn’t be talking about him being the nominee. McCain has been cleaning house in the latest primaries, so that proves the conservative base isn’t as important as once thought. It also means McCain has more time to try and get those conservatives to come over to him, without having to sell out to them. Instead of saying “I am most conservative”, he can now say “I am a better choice than the other side”.
In elections it’s all about equal time. We no longer have that, and every day this nomination process lingers on, the more time McCain has to rally a nation, instead of a base. That’s why we need a nominee as soon as possible.