Selecting a President:

1
Selecting a President

• Nominating Conventions

2
Presidential Selection

• Stage 1 Caucuses Primaries The Battle
  for the Party Faithful
• Stage 2 Nominating Conventions
  Glorified Infomercials?
• Stage 3 General Election
• The Fight for the Center
• Stage 4 Electoral College
• Power to the People?

3
Presidential Nominating ConventionsThe Nuts
Bolts
4
Nominating Conventions

• An assembly held by political parties every four
  years
• Usually held in late summer before the general
  election in November
• The Democratic and Republican parties hold
  nominating conventions as do third parties ex
  Green Party, Libertarian Party

5
Purposes of Nominating Conventions
1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit,
Michigan

• Delegates at the convention adopt a party
  platform.
• Delegates to the convention elect that partys
  nominees for President and Vice-president.

6
Whats a Party Platform?

• Party Platform - a statement of principles and
  objectives a political party and a candidate
  supports in order to win the general election.
• Plank - Individual topics in a partys platform
  (ex abortion, war in Iraq)

Cartoon satirizing the 1896 Democratic Party
Platform
7
2004 Platform Themes

• Democratic Party
• Strong at Home, Respected in the World

• Republican Party
• A Safer World and a More Hopeful America

How are these themes similar?
Different?
8
Who are Delegates?

• Delegate - A voting representative to the party
  nominating convention

9
Delegate Selection

• Proportional System
• Primary system used by the Democratic Party
• Candidates are allocated the same percentage of a
  states delegates as they received in popular
  votes
• Pros cons of the proportional system?

• Winner-take-all System
• System used in most Republican primaries
• The winner of the popular vote in that state
  receives all that states delegates
• Pros cons of the winner-take-all system?

10
Democratic Party RulesTwo Types of Delegates
Pledged Delegates v. Superdelegates
11
Pledged Delegates

• Each state allotted
  certain number of
  
  delegates who vote at
  the partys
  convention
• Pledged delegates are
  chosen at state
  
  local level
• Pledged delegates are
  required to cast a vote
  
  at the convention
  based on
  the results
  of the primary or
  caucus in their state

Pledged delegates count during the 2008
Democratic primaries
12
Superdelegates

• Members of the Democratic Party
  establishment who serve as unpledged
  delegates at the party convention
• Include members of Congress,
  governors, and members of the
  D.N.C.
• They are free to vote for any candidate at the
  convention

13
Brokered Convention

• A situation in which no one candidate in a
  political party has received enough delegates in
  the primaries and caucuses to obtain a majority
• After the first ballot at the partys
  convention, nominee decided through
  horse-trading and further ballots
• Thomas Dewey (R) in 1948 and Adlai
  Stevenson (D) in 1952 last two
  candidates selected through brokered
  conventions neither won the general
  election

Democrats avoided a
brokered convention in 2008
Brainstorm potential positive and negative
consequences of a brokered convention.
14
Convention Speeches The Keynote
Address
Democrat Zell Miller delivers the 2004
RNC Keynote Address
Senator Barrack Obama gives the 2004 DNC
Keynote Address

• The speech given at the convention that embodies
  that partys core message
• Why do you think Democrats choose Barrack Obama
  and Republicans Zell Miller to deliver the 2004
  Keynote Addresses?

15
Convention Speeches The Acceptance
Address
1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and
Richard M. Nixon deliver their Acceptance
Addresses at their partys national convention

• The speech given at the final day of the
  convention in which the winning candidate
  formally accepts the partys nomination for
  president
• The Acceptance Address is always televised by the
  major networks

16
Critics say that party nominating conventions
have become no more than infomercials.
1992 Democratic National Convention in New York
City
What do you think?
17
1920 Republican Convention

• Today candidates secure their partys nomination
  during the primaries
• But in 1920 there was no clear nominee going into
  the Republican Convention

http//www.rightyblogs.com
18
Schwarzenegger Rocks Republican Convention
By Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald
Tribune  09/21/2004
http//www.politicalcartoons.com/
19
2008 -- The Final Three
By Paresh Nath, National Herald, New Delhi, India
3/17/08 http//cagle.msnbc.com
20
Superdelegates
By John Trever, The Albuquerque Journal
03/30/2008 http//www.politicalcartoons.com/