Jonathan Bernstein: “The campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has been going on for over two years now, and the current phase of it seems unavoidable; CNN alone seems to hold a town hall candidate showcase practically every night. The ‘invisible primary’ gets more visible every cycle. If you’re heavily engaged in party politics, you may be spending hours a week on it; if you are just dedicated to following what’s happening in the news, you’re probably sick of the whole thing by now. ”
“And yet this is worth remembering: Most voters aren’t paying attention to any of it. Most Democratic voters have a pretty good idea of who Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are; they have at best passing familiarity with the other candidates. They haven’t watched any of the town halls all the way through, and may not have watched any of them at all. They haven’t seen clips on their Twitter feeds (if they use Twitter), or if they have, the candidates still tend to blur together. They don’t regularly talk with their friends about the candidates, or perhaps not at all.”
“There’s nothing at all wrong with that. After all, if all you do politically is vote, then tuning in this early is a big waste of time.”
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