I have to say, if they were too darned influential, Duncan Hunter would already be president instead we are left sifting through who is the least socialist. So apparently the old media is not quite as dead as we thought.
It may come as a giant surprise to you but in a two way race it takes over 50 percent of the votes cast to win. Apparently you think 35 percent of the voters can cast over 50 percent of the votes.
If the object is to elect a full blown conservative one must find a way to get 35 percent of the voters to cast more than 50 percent of the votes. That is very hard to do .. People with brains know it is impossible.
There are two options in the nomination process.. nominate a Conservative candidate that can't get more than 35 percent of the votes or nominate a candidate than can get to over 50 percent because he or she has some appeal to the independents.
Democrats have a bigger problem since only 18 percent of voters are liberal, but solve it a lot better than conservatives. Liberal Democrats pretend to be moderates until they get elected. They run for office as moderates and then govern as liberals.
Of course Conservatives won't stand for that, and demand a conservative who has always been a conservative. When conservatives accomplish their goal, the Democrats elect a liberal pretending to be a moderate and Conservatives yell "Damn Stupid Sheeple."
There are only two options for conservatives to win.. First conservatives could get off their dead rumps and convert enough people to make conservatives a majority of the voters. Then they could easily win. The other option is to nominate the most conservative candidate that can win. That means a partial conservative that is moderate enough to attract enough moderates to win. Conservatives never do either. That is why they always lose.
In four more years you can pick the next Fred and see the next McCain get the nomination. By demanding a candidate that is everything you want you only manage to get the nominee you hate most.
It may come as a surprise to some people on this forum, but the influence of the Old Media is still far greater than that of the New Media. The simple fact is most Americans still get their "information" from Old Media. New Media is gaining but lags far behind in audience. If there was anything like parity of influence, socialists like Edwards, Obama, and Clinton wouldn't stand a chance. Most candidates of either party would sound like Reagan.