The element of suprise

I personally think the Democrats are blowing it in regards to the presidential race.

Where's the element of surprise?

1. Trump has two years to evaluate, research and talk down all of his competition

2. If the fight gets ugly within the party, it will cause disenfranchisement and apathy.

3. 20 candidates who eventually need to push their voters to one? Are they relying on the "better than Trump" argument to get people out to the polls (see Apathy above).

4. By the time we do get to a single candidate, pocketbooks will be worn down, not to mention voters. I'm already tired of political ads and we've two years to go.

Behind the scenes, party leadership needs to be pushing to run polite campaigns and figure out a strategy to help things pull together faster. By that I do not mean they need to pick the candidate. I mean they need to negotiate with potentials on ways to understand their chances early and be able to throw support to someone who represents the voters in the party more holistically than others. They also need to eliminate the pretenders and investigate themselves to ensure there are no skeleton issues with the candidates that do move forward.

All this may be going on - but so far, it feels more disorganized than previous disorganized elections. Everyone was in way too early and there are too many of them. I think this is because they think this polarization will buy them the election - simple math - more Dems in the country and a horrible Republican candidate. Again, I think they are miscalculating the potential for voter apathy. Having canvassed voters in the past, there are a contingent who would not be sure they could leave their homes if their downstairs was on fire. Numbers are great, but they have to get to the polls.

Democratic leaders (are there any?) need to get former party leaders to step up and start rallying folks now. They need to help disseminate information about all of the candidates - side by side comparisons on real issues. They need to make sure Dems understand it is their choice and they need to get them to pick early and politely work toward consensus, so that goodwill and money are not spent on the internal haggle, leaving nothing on the table for the real fight.

Otherwise, the other guy, the man who is destroying the country, is going to win without having to do anything else.