How unconventional is this presidential election year?
Well, in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton downed a shot of whiskey at an Indiana bar, Barack Obama gave his first interview to archcritics at Fox TV, and John McCain took a tour of Appalachia with former Hewlett-Packard chair Carly Fiorina, his economic adviser.
The long campaign made stops Tuesday for primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, which still matter months after most thought the Democratic nomination would be settled. But that is not the only hole that has been punctured in conventional wisdom. For example:
Convention: Bloggers are intriguing, but hardly relevant.
Truth: Obama’s comments about small-town Americans being “bitter” were recorded by an Oakland blogger on her mp3 player while attending a San Francisco fundraiser. Part of a brigade of volunteer bloggers for huffingtonpost.com, Mayhill Fowler set the Democratic race on its ear.
Convention: Women are more empathetic and compassionate candidates.
Truth: The Hillary Clinton who got teary in New Hampshire is so last January. In Indiana, a union backer praised her for “testicular fortitude.” North Carolina’s supportive governor said she made Rocky Balboa “look like a pansy.”
Convention: Voting is passe.
Truth: Nationwide, about 50 million ballots have been cast so far, beating the previous record by 15 million. Virtually every state has set a turnout record on the Democratic side.
Convention: No one cares about superdelegates.
Truth: Now they do. Spring fever has been replaced by superdelegate fever. The free agents of the election, they are not bound by voting results and they could very well decide the Democratic nominee. Media track their every move; one enterprising uncommitted superdelegate even has launched a Web site, mrsuper.org, where anonymous musings are posted.
