--- Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 11, 2008, at 9:40 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski
> wrote:
> > Mike Gravel is still running. His
> > chances of getting the nomination are close to nil
>
>
> How close? 10^-1,000? 10^-1,000,000?
> (10^-1,000,000)^1,000,000?
>
[WS:] You seem to miss the point entirely. The point is that if one is to use the elections to express one's political view, the time and place to do it is the primaries. In the general election, voting for a candidate who has no chance of getting elected is a defacto vote for the opposition. However, in the primaries voting for such a candidate does not carry that danger, but it sends a signal to the party bosses where the sentiments of that party constituencies are.
That does not mean that those sentiments are going to be incorporated into the party agenda, but they will likely have an effect of slowing the party's drift to the right. After all, if one gets fed up with the Obama-Clinton identity politics and does not hear anything in their message that one finds relevant, one will likely to stay home in November, especially that McCain seems to be benign, if not sympathetic, to many Democrat constituents.
Wojtek
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