AFP doesn't like conventions

The foreign news service AFP has a story on Howard Dean trying to avert a convention fight that includes some purple prose:

A brokered convention has not been seen in decades, and harkens back to an era of shady political deal-making when powerbrokers and cash kings -- instead of regular voters -- chose one candidate over another at a raucous, smoke-filled convention hall.

"[C]ash kings"? Really?

For what it's worth, while conventions are less democratic, they actually often served to better represent the interests of the general public since the "shady political deal-making" was often geared toward choosing the candidate most likely to win. The dominance of primaries by ideological activists has arguably enhanced polarization.

Comments

[Rob]

AFP's prose may be purple (you know how those French are), but to be fair it's not just AFP that doesn't like brokered conventions, it's DNC Chair Howard Dean. Dr. Dean is quoted as saying, "I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement. Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention -- that would not be good news for either party."

Personally, I'm all in favor of the Democratic Convention coming down to a battle of the superdelegates. I just hope the party's vaunted commitment to openness permits us to see all the machinations, arm-twisting and backroom deals. What entertainment for an otherwise dull summer rerun season!