Not one single voter cast a ballot to select Kamala Harris to be the Democrats’ nominee for president. Yet Democrats will gather next week to bestow upon her the party’s presidential nomination. Consequently, the convention will be far more important than most – especially for the very small slice of the electorate that remains undecided. Since no one was allowed to use the regular nomination process to learn about Harris, these voters in particular must use the convention as their learning tool.
Typically, presidential candidates spend many months planning, building, and running their campaigns. During that time, they are tested on multiple fronts. They must engage voters, recruit volunteers, raise money, formulate policy positions, try out various versions of a stump speech in 60-second, three-minute, and 10-minute formats – and that’s before they ever confront another candidate. When other candidates enter the fray, opposition research comes into play, debates occur, and strategies must be adjusted.
Over the course of the nomination contest, candidates are weathered. Good polls beget more excitement, and more volunteers, and more contributions, which pay for more and better staff and more and better advertising, which begets more attention from the media, which begets even better polls, and the cycle continues.
Bad polls work in the opposite fashion – fewer volunteers, less money, and less attention from the media.
At the top of it all, of course, is the candidate, who gets all the credit........