Anyone following the primaries in both parties for at least a month can call themselves a political analyst. If you have followed it the whole way through, you have just earned a masters in American politics.
The long, hard-fought slough in both parties, especially the still ongoing one on the Democratic side, has fleshed out in a few months what would take a year's course to cover. Blue-states, red-states, proportional representation, delegates, political culture and history in each state, convention-speak, superdelegates, party rules, race in politics, public relations or 'spin', campaign finance, fundraising, etc etc.
McCain has shown us the importance of strategic campaigning; Guiliani showed us what a failed political strategy can do, even if you were perceived as the front-runner by default; Huckabee showed us the power of playing up your strengths; Edwards showed us populism is on the decline, and mostly shunned, in american politics; Obama is showing us the power of the 'outsider' and political momentum; Clinton is showing us what political connections can do and the risk with having a long political history. Oh yeah, Kucinich showed us you can't win if you are a vegetarian and your wife has her tongue pierced.
If anything will come out of this election, it will be a much more educated populace. People will now have at least an idea of what is meant by 'pledged delegates' and 'party rules'. They will be able to discuss momentum as anyone on CNN could. In all, they will have received an honorary degree in Political Science. And yes, it IS a science.
lhp
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