New Trend....?

Modern media mystery: Why are losing candidates winning in U.S. political primaries? In a disturbing new trend, increasing numbers of U.S. voters are throwing their support behind candidates that can't win, media representatives said yesterday at a National Press Club conference. And if the trend continues into the future, they warn, it's possible that the winning candidates won't win anymore.





Panel members were divided over the cause of the puzzling phenomenon. Some attributed it to an uninformed voting public, while others thought that too much media attention on nonviable candidates was the culprit. GOP primary candidate Ron Paul's surprising amount of support with Americans was used to highlight the problem.





"Giving media time to marginal candidates like Ron Paul can give voters a distorted view of the primary process," suggested NBC's Tim Russert.





"Too much attention is being placed on minor issues," offered MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "Certainly, when we mention that Ron Paul is anti-war, we distract attention away from the fact that the other candidates are pro-war. It turns the Iraq war into a political issue that takes attention away from the candidates who can win."





NPR's Cokie Roberts thought that more voter education was needed. "Most Americans don't understand the primary process as well as they do the general election," she claimed. "They don't seem to be able to distinguish the viable primary candidates from the nonviable ones."





The discussion was briefly interrupted when a young man in the audience stood up and said that he thought all the candidates deserved equal time in the primary debates, and accused the media of bias and favoritism. The conspiracy theorist was quickly tasered and removed from the conference, after which the discussion turned to how the media can help to improve the primary process.