Does DU have any influence on the Presidential primaries?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Poll question: Does DU have any influence on the Presidential primaries?

Pro- and anti- threads, debates on the issues, flame wars, etc. -- does it matter? Do the posts on DU have any impact on the real-world campaign?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. OK, who voted 'Other' without explaining?

Time to 'fess up.

[windansea]

2. other

you neeed a choice which says

Silly polls posted on DU have no meaning

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Shameless kick n/t

[Scottie72]

4. I would say yes....

Isn't William Pitt now working for Dennis? Thus there has to be a little bit of a rub off.

[fshrink]

5. Other too.

Primaries are run on the ground. This is politics. On the other hand, I know that lots of people read DU (i.e. staff, footwork analysts and the like, from diverse convictions) and that some things do move upward, sometimes up to the top. This tends to happen before the show begins.

[cryofan]

6. what is posted here on DU can indeed find its way to the very top

I believe it was my first post here on DU that found its way to former President CLinton's ears via a reporter's question at a CSPAN press conference.

I had been reading something on some other forum about the constitutional bar to a 3rd term for the President, and while reading the specfic language of the two pertinent sections, it occured to me that under a particular interpretation, CLinton might be nominated to run as VP. And so I posted here on DU that the 2004 ticket might be Clinton-Clinton (Hilary-Bill).

About a week or two later, I am watching CSPAN and hear Clinton answer a question dealing with just that subject.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I voted for choice #3

I think many people learn a lot here, not just reading articles, but getting the chance to discuss what's going on with like-minded people. That's bound to carry over to "real life," where many of the people we encounter aren't necessarily like-minded at all.

[NV1962]

8. I was other #3

The US has a system similar to the British winner-takes-all and district-based candidate selection method: not the most democratic manner of picking candidates for the top spot in national government.

Hence the disproportional importance of the deafening silence of the disengaged and disenfranchised.

DU has an individually very empowering effect, but nationwide it is irrelevant - not because of insufficient significance, but because real-life politics are played in another dimension.

Unless the voice of "grass-roots" is taken to government (e.g.: getting rid of the electoral college) that's the way it will be.

[Fla_Democrat]

9. I think this is the first time

I have voted with a majority of the respondents. Spooky. :scared:

[deutsey]

10. No. Stop flattering yourselves.

You're a small part of the Democratic Party's equation for defeating Bush. A very, very small part. A part they are willing to sacrifice. Screw the Democratic Party. Let's put our heads together and start a new country up, as REM once sang (before they sold out too).

[DjTj]

11. I voted for porn...

...how can you not vote for porn?

[0rganism]

12. Larry Flynt for president! Flynt-Jeremy 2004

"Because a vote for Larry is a vote for porn!"