Word: democratizer
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Consider the Republican Party. Many Republicans dislike John McCain with a passion that has lasted for years. Asked to explain, they refer to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform law (which they thought, incorrectly as it turns out, would bite Republicans more than Democrats), or his opposition (since rescinded) to the Bush tax cuts, or what they regard as his tiresome and preening routine as a maverick. They resent his mutual love affair with the press (which he jokingly refers to as "my base"). They remember a lot of foolish talk a while back about how McCain might switch parties...
...Obama might steer the spotlight away from Clinton's delegates by making actual news of his own. He would be the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to spring his running mate on the gathered conventioneers, and if his choice is popular on the floor, he might even buy a couple of peaceful news cycles...
...however, Democrat Walter Mondale found himself in need of a miracle against incumbent President Ronald Reagan. Mondale, who joined Carter's ticket on the third day of the 1976 convention, broke with traditional timing by naming Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate a week before the party gathered in San Francisco. Mondale turned his one-week convention bounce into a two-week sensation - not that it mattered much. Reagan was re-elected in a landslide of historic proportions...
...linkage between conventions and running-mate rollouts was almost completely broken. Democrat John Kerry announced his choice of John Edwards nearly three weeks before his party gathered...
...Despite his fearsome national and international reputation, Helms was also known for acts of personal thoughtfulness. When he retired in 2002, North Carolina's junior senator, a Democrat with whom he had often tangled, was among those paying him tribute: "The people of North Carolina will never forget the work and the kindness and the personal attention that he has given to them," he said. John Edwards knew that from experience. Before Edwards ever entered politics, Helms heard about the death of his teen-age son, Wade, in a car accident and went to the floor of the Senate...