We all went into reasons today in a great diary on site traffic trends. There was another one that researched how many times a candidate diaries occupied the rec list by percentage. It dovetailed nicely with the readership loss.
Rather than slam the candidate diaries one more time here is a few suggestions that would make them readable instead of posting You Tubes, talking points, speeches etc.
Here's the kind of candidate diary I would click into.
MATCH UP DIARY: Edwards vs Giuliani on Health care.
The diarist then goes on to research , Analyze and links the various positions that each candidate has taken. Not a list. But a well done analysis with how the American public, even how R's would react to it and why.
Then measure each candidates in a "what if" scenario if certain things happen in the house and senate which would help and or hurt a candidates chances of getting policy through that can substantially change the status quo.
I'd like to see positions ( detailed) on trade deficits, spending deficits, debt, negative savings rate, capital flight and other issues that haven't been addressed in detail by the candidates as far as I have seen and a a real look at the numbers and how it would work. Not XXX candidate is for deficit reduction. What will s/he do to reduce the deficit? No simplistic answers like "raise taxes on the rich".
Take a look at the spending and tell us what programs would be cut and what chances your candidate would have of leading congress through some tough policy decisions.
That indicates that someone is doing some thinking and it should spark some reasonable debate here. If some promise is completely ridiculous it can be sorted out here pretty quick. If it lacks details after a year of being surrounded by all kinds of experts, someone isn't coming clean.
If you are unable to get a detailed response from the campaign, that too should tell you something. All of the front-runners have big bucks and have surrounded themselves with people who ultimately will be part of their management teams. If they aren't debating policy and putting down detailed position papers that accounts for all the variables. Then what the hell are they going to do in office.
Is it supposed to be a secret? If they are trying to win trust and support, people have to believe they have surrounded themselves with good people and they have a detailed understanding of the issues. That's not the time to keep it a secret.
I've gone to the candidates sites and listened to their speeches. Virtually none say how the will deal with different compositions of congress. All critical to making promises into reality. Virtually none acknowledge that our debt is so high that belt tightening is going to be required. Most of them will blame the debt on Bush, but few if any have gone into how they are going to repair the damage.
So rather than put up stuff that only supporters will read or hit diaries that start fights. How about how is best equipped to deal with a split congress on Health Care when our finances are in the gutter?
By the way, I mention finance quite a bit becuase nothing of substance is going to be funded if we don't raise money and cut spending. That's the very foundation of the ability to put into play progressive policy.