Let the Games Begin

Larry Sabato has four questions about what the Democrats will do between now and Campaign Naught-Eight:

…help themselves by nominating the candidate most likely to win, or will they insist on ideological purity?

…choose a person with broad popular appeal, or pick a controversial standard-bearer? …broaden their base, or merely attempt to produce the highest turnout possible among liberal constituency groups, a tactic that failed in 2004?

…find a nominee fully able to compete with a Republican on national security, or simply hope to skate by on this greatest of all issue-clusters in the current age of terrorism?

…make any compromises on the hot-button social and cultural issues (abortion, gay rights, gun control, the death penalty), thereby allowing themselves to compete in some red Republican territory, or will they once again just set out to thrill the bluest of their blue state supporters?

Good questions, and as always, fun to watch play out. Of course, there’s also this:

Believe it or not, we are nearly four months into the 48 month 2008 campaign–and a mere 35 months away from the start of the primary nomination season.

I need a drink.