A Rare (Not Really) Political Post

[gnomi]

Last night, mabfan and I were watching the Democratic National Convention, and it occurred to me to mention, as I have a couple of times in related contexts over the past 19 months, that if it weren't for Jack Ryan, we wouldn't be having this particular set of speakers at the Convention.

Odd how things happen, no?

Comments

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link - I was wondering what Tom Clancy had to do with the choice of Democratic convention speakers.

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

I had the same thought :)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I see an alternate history story to be written...

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

My warped sense of reality and imagination wants to see Jen Pelland tackle this one! :)

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

As long as it ends with Jeri Ryan as cyborg queen of America, I'm in. :>)

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

Me too.

Not sure how much it really mattered . . . .

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

The election was competitive prior to Ryan's withdrawal, but by no means a sure thing for either candidate. Even if Ryan hadn't been getting a little "six of nine" in a public club, Obama may well have won.

And, of course, even if he had lost, Obama had gotten his big boost from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. He would not be the first politician from Illinois to mount a succesful campaign for president after losing a Senate race.

So I put it in the category of one of many things that helped contribute to an outcome, rather than a clearly determining factor.

Re: Not sure how much it really mattered . . . .

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

True. But had Ryan not had to drop out, the Republicans wouldn't have put up Alan Keyes, and Obama beat Keys something like 70-30%.

Re: Not sure how much it really mattered . . . .

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

Even if the Dems ran an empty ticket against Keys, the outcome might have been similar.

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

wow. somehow, I never connected those two parts...