front runner or frontrunner
1. A mythical beast capable of winning an election before a single vote has even been cast.
2. A candidate for whom political pundits would like you to vote.
3. The winner of elusive and rarely cited polls.
4. (esoteric and rarely used) The candidate likely to gain the most support.
We've all heard of the mythical front runner, a beast so terrifying that it can scare an election into submission before a single vote is cast. What's not as well known is the gestation, growth, and sustenance cycle of this animal.
The seed for the front runner's conception is released when a political party loses a presidential election. The divine implantation occurs when a pundit gazes into the political ethers and is rewarded by a vision of a candidate who will be controversial, divisive, or at least entertaining to talk about. The seed is implanted in the head of the political pundit by immaculate conception. It grows within a day.
The following day, like Athena emerging fully grown from the head of Zeus, the front runner emerges full-grown, anointed, and already winning the election that will not take place for four years.
To last for four years, the front runner needs sustenance. Four years is a long time to be on a diet. What does this strange beast eat?
The front runner begins to be fed when the pundit declares its existence. This plants the seed of its food. The crop is watered by potential voters, who hear rumor of the front runner and decide that, being loyal party members, they had better support the best hope of their party. Pollsters reap the crop when they learn that the pundit's idea has caught on. The crop of new polls strengthens the front runner. The pundit, often citing unnamed but certainly reliable polls, now announces that the front runner is invincible, and the cycle starts again.
The front runner has special powers. It can prevent all who hear of it from discussing any other candidate, at least not on TV. It can, as previously mentioned, be winning an election before any vote has been cast. These facts about the front runner are well known.
There is, however, a darker and more esoteric story about the front runner. Though considered heretical by many front runner worshipers, some Gnostic sects believe the front runner is also a shape-shifter, capable of being the person you think it is, and the person you think it is not at the same time.
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Comments: 17
Nippy, this is totally off topic, but I've been meaning to ask you: do your cats bite when you herd them?
Back to the topic:
There is also definition #7, which comes to us from the future, after the Silicone Breast Prohibition of 2025: A person who illegally crosses state lines with large jugs.
Another great "progressive" article. [see my comments on your previous article re Dems and Media Choosing Candidates. Pls also comment on my article: Dear Mr President? re mythical beast come to life and rearing its ugly head.
Couldn't agree more on frontrunners. Unfortunately, they seem to have a life of their own once they become a media darling; witness, for example, Obama [see how the perceptions abound already--he's presented and perceived as brilliant, fresh-faced, pure wonder boy--because he's shy on experience--when he's actually very politically sophisticated and knows well how to play the frontrunner game]. That shouldn't make him any less a candidate. But the media and the public are fickle [helped along by the pollsters]. Hopefully, he really does have the "right stuff" [whatever one considers that to be] and will not be flame out in a brief blaze of glory. How does he live up to it; hopefully he's smart enough to know this is just a preparatory and perhaps transitional moment in the limelight. I personally don't think he can withstand it--the light--even though he claims he's seen it in church.
But the point of your article--front runners are not always who and what they appear to be? I say, the candidate with genuine authenticity [and long run stamina] will be "the one." J.E. has always been my pick; with a little more exposure, he is the only one I know who has got "it" - authenticity, brains, scruples, principles, endurance , persistence, focus, and a quiet charisma that holds up under the bright lights [I'm may be leaving a few things out here].
Obama also seems promising. I don't know enough about him. I was impressed by his speech at the 2004 convention. He definitely speaks well. I would need to know much, much more to be truly impressed with him.
I will definitely check out and comment on your article.
On the national level, Ted Koppel is one of very few TV journalists in recent memory who's even attempted to get beyond the sound-bite level of political campaigns--and he's been put out to pasture to make room for the fluff piece that is now Nightline.
Note: Barack Obama is 45 years old (not a "boy"--let's all count how many times we hear him called "boy, " shall we?). Obama served in the Illinois state Senate for 7 years and was elected to the US Senate in 2004.
Barack Obama received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Columbia in 1983, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991. While at Harvard, he served as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
Before his Harvard Law School years, Obama served as a civil rights attorney and directed community organizing projects in low income communities in New York and Chicago. In 1992, he directed Illinois Project VOTE!, a state-wide voter registration and education campaign.
Dave, thanks for the background on Obama.
"It's frustrating to observe media outlets reaping millions from campaign advertising and yet taking so little responsiblity for in-depth reporting on the candidates and issues."
Or is it because they take so many advertising dollars that they consider it necessary to go easy on the people who pay them those dollars? (I would have never connected the two without your observation.)
I think that Obama will have the same problem Edwards had last time, of being treated with less respect than he deserves because of his youthful appearance. This is a shame, because we need new and relatively young ideas. This country could use a breath of fresh air.
"Before his Harvard Law School years, Obama served as a civil rights attorney..."
I just want to point out that it is impossible for him to have served as an attorney before his law school years. I have no doubt that he served in some civil rights legal capacity at some point, but if you plan to advocate for him as a candidate, you should get your story straight on this.
My take is that the candidates need the exposure more and can't afford to be picky. I'm afraid it is the calculation of the media moguls (particularly TV) that viewers want to watch "Race to Extreme Survival Island" more than a fascinating discussion of Middle East policy. Even at 11:30 pm.
Obama's credentials sound impressive (sorry I didn't say that before). I think it's highly important to get someone in office who understands law, because our legal system is currently in sad shape. I would hope that it would be someone who understands, as Edwards does, that (in his words):
The ability of ordinary people to go to court and obtain justice is under siege. This is no coincidence.
It is part of a calculated political agenda that plays out every day in Congress and the Executive Branch, an agenda designed to put powerful corporate interests ahead of ordinary people.
I am also a big fan of John Edwards. There were the attempts to paint him as "the wrong kind of lawyer" during the 04 campaign, which I found laughable. He's well spoken and qualified for the job, in my opinion. I look forward to a solid raft of Democratic candidates for 08.
Shawn, I think you're right. I have believed this for several election cycles now. I just wish more people realized it. Unfortunately, I think many people jump on the front runner bandwagon without thinking about whether or not that person is being given free advertising by the media and if so, why. I think because so much of our media is personality driven, a candidate with a compelling personality could become the media darling and still have a lot going for them. Bill Clinton was an example of this, I think, but I doubt that it happens very often.
I think Bill Moyers would agree with my theory of the Mythical Front Running Beast. Here were his comments at the recent National Conference on Media Reform, in two YouTube segments of about 1/2 hour each:
Part 1
Part 2