How about, in order of significance: "Stay in this thing. DON'T LET THEM RUN YOU OUT....
Ron will stay in for sure. He won't let them run HIM out.
Pat Buchanan is talking about you, me and the rest of us - why?
We've all seen the stories of party hacks trying to manipulate and intimidate relatively innocuous looking things as strawpolls.
You ain't seen nothing yet. Politics - the ugly side - is very much about creating perceptions and hoping it sticks. The 'rise' of Huckabee is a perfect example.
The primaries will be TheMoment for TheParty (not only one) to deflate the energy that is making this thing work. The calculation is to 'create' by hook or by crook a 'disappointment', hoping that the energy largely dissipates. It's going to be as successful as the other think-tanked, focus-grouped (expensive) triangulations so far (ignore, can't win, smear by association, embrace by neocon loonies, etc.).
We need to do as well as possible in the primaries under the conditions. It's always possible to pull something off by sheer energy, but it's not essential. What is important to make the gaming as hard and as obvious as can be. Work like crazy and pay attention to every little detail. But even more important though, is to keep the spirit and the energy in the face of any apparent disappointment - things will work out.
That's what the old warrior is talking about - he knows the score...
