In defense of 2016 speculation
Yes, it's annoying only a month removed from the last election, but now's when possible candidates start to emerge
Topics: The American Prospect, Marco Rubio, 2012 Elections, Elections 2012, Republican Party, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Elections News, Politics News
Over at The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf mocks the breathless 2016 speculation with a post ”gearing up for the 2048 presidential election.” It’s genuinely funny:
Although it is still early, Mitt Romney, who has 16 grandchildren, is leading among the patriarchs of America’s dynastic political families, in part due to the present childlessness of George P. Bush and Chelsea Clinton, whose presence in articles on this subject is an apparent journalistic convention. Starting families now could give the hypothetical grandchildren of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton a head start on the theoretical grandchildren of Barack Obama, whose daughters are years away from having children if they decide to procreate at all.
I sympathize with the (implicit) frustration here. It’s only been a month since the presidential election, and Washington journalists are already obsessing over the 2016 field. This despite the fact that there are serious issues the country needs to deal with—climate change, mass unemployment, and an impending hit of austerity.
With that said, I think some 2016 writing is justified. In general, journalists spend too much time focusing on the voting primaries, and too little time exploring the “invisible primary,” where prospective candidates court donors, meet with key players, build constituencies, and look for support within the party.
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