Texas Blue Mailbag: Week of December 2

We have some summaries of the U.S. political situation as it currently stands, as well as a thoughtful question on fielding candidates, in this week's Mailbag.

Lexine asks:

I've been in a cocoon. What's up in politics? What are candidates doing to get my attention?

Josh answers:
Apparently, Ron Paul is going to try and win your heart with a blimp. Also, I hear Senator Biden is going to have a rocking new ad out on Tuesday. So, look out for a blimp and Joe Biden, coming at you, very soon.

JNY asks:

Has there been an over-arching reaction to the revelations about Iran in the NIE within the Republican Party? What has it been, and will there be any point where the Republican candidates simply disregard the current administration's goal and policies?

George says:

There absolutely has been — they've been remarkably consistent. But, of course, not in any sort of way that makes sense. Well, I guess it does make sense, if you picture Republicans as the anti-intellectual reason-be-damned stay-the-course types. They've been consistent in insisting that Iran is still a threat, and still needs to be dealt with harshly. Of course, they've never been much for listening to the intelligence community in the first place, so I don't see why that should surprise us.

Barbara Ellen asks:

How is Obama doing? What can he do to win the nomination?

Josh answers:

I don't know. If he could talk like this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the primaries kick off, it would probably help:

DF asks:

How does filling the ballet with Democratic candidates, without the candidates having the resources to run a full fledged campaign, create momentum for the party?

George replies:

Well, that's an interesting question. Two pros for that sort of effort come immediately to mind. The first is based on the idea that a good deal of effective campaigning is getting your base out to vote. You can try swaying soft independents, or you can spend a lot of time trying to "convert" disaffected Republicans (who will probably just vote Ron Paul anyway, if they bother showing up), but none of these should ever come before a strong effort to mobilize your base. That's where you can get the most votes for the least effort; I'd say all smart campaigns start with efforts to mobilize those voters that are already for you.

Now, if your campaign is short on resources, you may have a hard time even doing that. And going with the "fill the ballot" strategy, there are inevitably at least a few candidates that may not have the fundraising prowess or experience to do the often expensive job of getting out your base. But whereas an individual candidate would have to basically Get Out The Vote in his universe solo, having a full ballot can mean that you get help with those efforts. Base mobilization is, in most cases, a general Democratic GOTV message, and that sort of message helps all candidates, not just the one actually doing GOTV. So candidates that otherwise may not be as financially viable as they need to be can get a boost from working together with other candidates in their area and effectively split the work of their GOTV effort. This is what a coordinated campaign is all about.

I think there's another benefit to running a full ticket, and this one is especially apparent in historically strongly Republican areas like here in Denton County: even when Democrats have been continuously improving their showings here, certain Democrats will tend to feel a bit beaten down about how their party has historically performed in elections in their area. They may think the Democrats in the area are few and far between, or perhaps that they're simply not involved or organized enough to make a strong showing. Fielding a full ticket can serve to give those folks some hope and get them excited about the elections process once again — and that can turn into self-fulfilling prophecy, as more enthusiastic Democrats turn out in larger numbers and end up winning elections in doing so.