Last Word on Electability

I'm going to try as hard as I can to resist the temptation to write further about the electability question but what Jon Chait said. I'd only add that the McCain/Romney gap seems much bigger than the Obama/Clinton gap to me; the generally unfavorable political climate for Republicans makes the specific choice of nominee unusually important.

Comments

What I haven't seen in any of the commentary concerning the electability issue is a linkage to the implementation of policy. It seems clear that, given her negatives, Hillary Clinton will have to win the general election using a 50% + 1 strategy; Obama, on the other hand, could run something closer to a fifty state strategy. Given this, Obama would end up with a kind of "honeymoon" that Clinton would lack. That honeymoon period would be the perfect time to implement a new progressive agenda. Clinton wouldn't have a honeymoon because her election would have been much more divisive and structural factors (i.e. the Senate) would act to thwart the implementation of a Clinton-led progressive agenda.

Posted by jonm | January 21, 2008 8:07 PM

Yes, Hillary supporters are just fucking stupid. Only an idiot would support somebody with negative numbers over 40% BEFORE they are nominated.

Posted by Andrew | January 22, 2008 11:03 AM