The National Conventions

1
Session 19

• The National Conventions

2
The Presidential Nomination Process

• Phases of the Nomination Contest
• Phase I The Invisible Primary Laying the
  Groundwork and Preliminary Skirmishing
• Phase II The Early Contests
• Frontloading ex Super Tuesday, The Yankee
  Primary
• Candidates are selected too quickly
• Benefits the frontrunner
• Advantages the candidates who can raise early
  money
• Amplifies the importance of the invisible primary
• Phase III The Later Primaries and Caucuses
• Phase IV The Convention

3
Conventions What Do They Contribute to the
Parties and the Political System?

• Making the nominations
• Official
• Gets the candidate on state ballots
• Winning with a good margin creates momentum
• Choosing the Vice President
• balance age, region, ideology

• Their role then and now . . . in transition
• Official Functions

4

• Governing the National Party
• DNC and RNC
• Delegates

• Adoption of the Party Platform

5
The Policy Relevance of Party Platforms for voters

• Meaningful to the voter?
• Judgment of the nature of the times
• Future positions
• Consistency
• Fulfillment of the stated goals

6
Indirect Contributions of National Conventions
Building and Ratifying a Consensus

• Factionalism Among Democrats
• South, Viet Nam, Class

• Factional Strife Among the Republicans
• Christian conservatives and economic
  conservatives

7

• Party Unity in Recent Conventions
• Dukakis and Jackson, Carter and Kennedy, Bush and
  Buchanan
• Side payments and deals
• Move to the center

8
The National Convention Delegates

• Demographic Characteristics
• Attitudinal and Value Differences
• Actions of the Delegates Strategic
  Decision-Making
• Ideology
• Winning

9
The Role of the Media at the Conventions

• Connection to the public
• Media goals
• A symbiotic relationship

DAVID BIANCULLI Well, they could make a better
show. Whether it would find an audience, I don't
know. I think, well, NBC as a network has been
embarrassingly absent, at least it was for the
first couple of days, over on MSNBC in prime
time, they were doing a good job. And yet ratings
for MSNBC were abysmal. And so, you know, if you
go somewhere else to some alternate source in
order to do a better job and viewers don't follow
you, what's the point?
10
The General Election The Strategic Environment

• The Strategic Problem of Time
• Opening Themes
• The Strategic Variables
• Constituency
• The office?
• The electoral system
• Skills of the candidate
• Party organization
• Political resources