Burnt Orange Report

If Dean supporters don't end up supporting the Democratic candidate for president...

Remind me again where and how Dean has broadened the base of our party?

That doesn't answer the question.

Karl-Thomas... it's the information age and it's inevitable that exit polls will be leaked and published in the age of the Internet, blogs and other non-traditional news sources.

I think it's entirely inappropriate for mainstream / network media to publish exit polls before the polls close, because that's where the average voter will get their news from and I think that major media corporations have a responsibility to their viewers to present a fair view of the race on election day by not calling anything until the polls close. As for alternative media, however, I see one of the major purposes of blogs is to report on things that the mainstream media either ignores and/or doesn't report. If I thought that my posting on exit polls would influence anyone to not vote today, I wouldn't post them, but I don't think that the people that read blogs regularly and really keep up with blogs / internet stuff would be influenced by exit polls. The people who get influenced by that kind of stuff, in my opinion are casual observers who may or may not vote, probably aren't plugged in to the internet community and aren't very well aligned with one candidate or another.

A good response Byron. Just so long as the general media doesn't start going earlier to get ahead of what they perceive to be a threat from the online world. Many of the TV/Newspapers also exist online now so it's not that hard of a jump to make. That's what worries me.

It's obvious that Dean is preparing an independent candidacy. That's the only explanation for his bullheaded refusal to bow out. And that's why his national chairman, a former Democratic Party apparatchik, has jumped ship - in protest.

Toss Nader into the mix again, and Kerry will be lucky to draw 35% of the popular vote, with a possible zero in the electoral college.

Mark,

That's just dilusional. We're really not that stupid. The Democratic Party is more united now than it has been at any time in recent history in its desire to oust a Republican president. Howard Dean has repeated said that he will support the Democratic nominee. He'll drop out, and support the nominee on his timetable. While I'm no longer a Dean supporter, I think that he has every right to keep going at least until John Kerry has secured the necessary delegates to win the nomination. While I'd advise him to end his campaign earlier than that, I won't call for Dean to pull out officially until Kerry has secured the delegates to become the presumptive nominee.

I keep hoping the media will pull a Chicago Sun-Times and post one of these stories which is then "overtaken by events." But it's not likely that all the polls would be that far off.

It's pretty clear that CBS channel 47 had already decided what they were going to say about today's primary even before it happened. Even if Dean were to defy all expectations and end up within 5% of Kerry, they'd still spin it as "another blow to Dean" since he didn't win outright.

BTW, NH and TN midday exit polls were rather far off. Kerry's going to win, but I'm still hopeful Dean's numbers will be better than what Drudge is posting....

It's been obvious for some time that Dean doesn't have a snowball's chance in a Texas July of winning the nomination. But that doesn't make the media's undisguised gloating over it any easier to take.

Two points:
• One way NOT to broaden the base of the Democratic Party is for embittered Dean backers to constantly make snippy remarks about Kerry. Such comments will do nothing to change the results.
Kerry is the de facto nominee. Edwards can drag things out slightly with a better than expected showing in WI. But he can only delay the inevitable.
Whatever happens, the Dean candidacy is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.
Deal with it.
You can choose between Kerry and George AWOL Bush in November. Leave the alternative history scenarios to science fiction writers.

• What ever happened to the agreement among news organizations after the 1980 election not to publish exit poll results or to call an election in a particular state until all the polls are closed there? And can anybody complain about Channel 47's lapse when exit poll results are published on certain political blogs well before all the polls are closed?
With 57% of American households hooked up to the internet, one cannot claim that nobody is influenced by what goes on online. We know how quickly rumors can be spread on the internet.

I'm with Tim Z. It's crunch time; Kerry may not be everyone's ideal, a lot of us want a more progressive candidate, but he's our best shot. I'm not ashamed of going for "electability". Bush has to go, and everyone of us has to do what it takes to get that done.