Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
https://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl
Will the 'Electability Monster' Devour 2020?
Alex Pareene, The New Republic staff writer, and Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, discuss how the dubious conventional knowledge about "electability" hampers Democratic party's largest and most diverse presidential field.
"Electability was used by figures in the Democratic Party… to push voters to embrace candidates not because they were enthusiastic about that candidate, but because they were making calculations about what they thought other voters would like and find acceptable," says @pareene.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 6, 2019"If you go through American history, you can find a lot of different people who became president who had to grapple with the electability question.… Ronald Reagan, in fact, if you look back at the emergence of the term electability it comes into play around 1980," says @kkondik.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 6, 2019"The candidate who gets, not just the base enthused, but gets the base enthused enough to get three or four friends to go to the polls with them, that’s the definition of electability now," says @pareene on Democratic presidential hopefuls in 2020.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 6, 2019