The manuscript for the current volume was prepared and finished during the early stages of the 2015/2016 presidential campaign season, and our final draft was delivered to our publisher the day following the South Carolina Democratic primary. Thus our discussion of that campaign is already incomplete. Since then, we now know that Sec. Clinton has improved her position by managing to win primaries and caucuses in seven more states, raising her delegate total to 577 as of this writing. Sen. Sanders managed to win four states during Super Tuesday, and at this point can claim 386 delegates. While Sen. Sanders remains a viable candidate, these results reinforce our position that Hillary Clinton, given events through March 1, should win the nomination of her party and is the likeliest candidate to be elected to the presidency. On the Republican side, Donald Trump still holds the lead in delegates after Super Tuesday, but Sen. Cruz remains within striking distance, and Sen. Rubio, with a win in Minnesota, cannot be ruled out at this point. Sen. Rubio must now rely on his home state of Florida to sustain his campaign. Auspiciously, that primary is to be held on the Ides of March. Currently, as this book goes to press, Sen. Rubio is a distant second in the polls to Mr. Trump, and it is unclear whether or not he has enough time to gain the momentum necessary to score a needed win in the Sunshine State. Should Sen. Rubio lose Florida, the nomination for the Grand Old Party is most likely to become a two-way contest from this point forward to the California primary.
Having said all of this, it is our hope that the necessarily incomplete discussion of the 2016 campaign within this volume proves to be helpful in at least a small way. Finally, we hope that this book provides a solid introduction to both the history of presidential campaigns as well as the various qualities and elements that continue to remain meaningful. Democracy depends on rational, civil discourse, and civil discourse in turn relies on informed participants interacting as fellow citizens within the public arena. When civil discourse is abandoned, and rational dialogue gives way to reactive and unreflective emotion, democracy becomes vulnerable to the designs of demagogues and enthralled by the force of personality. This is not to say that there is no place for emotion in politics; many of the greatest moments in political campaigns stir the human heart. Rather, this is simply to remind us that only those emotions that elevate us—those emotions that are supported by careful reason and shared through the civil debate over which means is best to achieve our shared ends as Americans—work to the benefit and improvement of our institutions and the realization our national purpose. It is our hope that the outcome of the campaign that is now unfolding before us will uplift our democracy and enable us to share together all that is true and good within the American spirit.
Scott John Hammond
Robert North Roberts
Valerie A. Sulfaro
March 2, 2016