Great arguments against using the "electability" argument from Chris Bowers

[More Than A Feeling]

One of my goals is to help diffuse the Democratic obsession with electability, which I believe is extremely damaging to the party around the country. It makes Democrats appear pandering (we will say or do anything in order to get elected), shiftless (we don't stand for anything except getting elected), out of touch (our ideas aren't good enough to get us elected--we have to change and move toward Republicans in order to achieve office) and dishonest (we can trick people into voting for someone based on his or her resume / demographic profile). In short, in the effort to make one Democrat look good, playing the electability card makes the whole party look bad, and more interested in power for the sake of power than power in order to do actual good.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/1/22/152418/584

I would add that by choosing your candidate based on who you think appeals most to others, you've basically ceded your voice, your vote, the entire basis of our system of representative government, to those people. You've now placed their voice above yours. If you are going to do that, why not just let them tell you who to vote for directly? It would take the guessing out of it.

[Bucky]

1. He destroys electibility as a criterion for a 1-issue candidate (if that one issue is electability)

The reality is that electibility must be considered, not as the only criterion, but as one of several criteria we use in choosing the best candidate. No one has ever argued that electibility is the sole consideration--if that were the case we would have nominated Ronald Reagan in 1984! Chris Bowers is showing himself adept at slaying a straw dragon here.

What happens in reality is that some candidates (I presume a candidate that Bowers himsef supports) fail to get full consideration because of their percieved unelectibility. And of course it is an exersize in jousting with windmills to support any candidate who lacks in that quality.

[rinsd]

3. Excellent response.

I agree that electability while not THE factor cannot be discounted as A factor.

[sallyseven]

2. Things change in a minute.

Electability today gone tomorrow. We should reallhy examine the candidates and not make sharp judgements.