Now that the establishments of both parties have so front- end loaded the primary system, the electorate arguably has never had less input into selection of Presidential candidates. Even in the old days of open conventions, some influence could be achieved by such mechanism as the Favorite son.

This has greatly strengthened to power of the MSM (a rare event these days) because of their opportunity to not name alternatives. Faced with the choice between, say, McCain, Giuliani and Romney, most voters feel obliged to pick one. So establishment preferences are entrenched.

There is a branch of business statistical theory which holds that the consensus of professional opinion is likely to be a good guess. This has been used in some surprising situations, for instance recovering sunken submarines.

The Irish firm Intrade is applying this concept to politics. Real money is involved, so the system is not easily rigged. The Intrade data is increasingly being cited in American political journalism

Unfortunately, the candidates possibly congenial to VDARE.com readers, such as Hunter, Paul, and Tancredo currently score extremely low – the voting pattern reflects MSM preferences. At present McCain has 33.5%, Giuliani 27.2% and Romney 18%. (Curious that two of three of the “Republican” leaders come from such Democratic states.)

But, unlike the MSM, if this situation changes, Intrade is likely to report it.

Do Immigration Reformers gamble?

Here’s an interesting story…

The U.S. Border Patrol wanted to run recruitment ads in programs handed out to the 200,000 people who attended the Super Bowl a few weeks ago in Miami. The NFL said no way.

Well, first they said they wanted the USBP to re-word the ad so it didn’t include words such as terrorists, illegal aliens and drug smuggling--they thought the ad would be too gloomy for sports fans. According to the NFL, the USBP never got back to them and so the entire ad was left out.

Yeah right! Now we know what really happened:[NFL Defends Decision Not to Print Border Patrol Ad Recruitment in Super Bowl Program by Liza Porteus FOX News 2/15/2007]

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said they asked for modifications and did not receive them–this may or may not be true, who knows?

At first he said “We were uncomfortable with the copy, which talked about terrorists and their weapons and undocumented aliens and drug smuggling, and for the Super Bowl and our Super Bowl guests, we thought that was a little much.”

Now then, the actual copy from the USBP read “As Border Patrol agents, it will be your responsibility to prevent the entry of terrorists and their weapons into the United States. You’ll help detect and prevent the unlawful entry of undocumented aliens into the United States … [and ] play a primary role in stopping drug smuggling across our borders,” specifically along the southwest border.

But later in the interview he–perhaps unintentionally–revealed the real reason behind the rejection:

“To us, it also raises the immigration issue, which is a very controversial political issue and we wanted to steer clear from that and any perception that we were taking some position on that,” he said.

A Border Patrol ad raises the immigration issue…hmm, who would have thunk it?

And then they talked about a potential National Football League franchise in…Mexico!

“We love Mexico,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We have a great fan base there. It’s growing every day. We are very interested in going back. And we hope to be dealing with the various officials in Mexico to try to get that done for the 2008 season.”

Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic! This is the bottom line:

The National Football League was presented with a choice: To protect America or to profit in Mexico…they chose Mexico…they drew this line in the sand, not us.

I want to see their ratings plummet over this so I have decided to keep the pressure on these fools so nobody (at least our beloved VDARE.com readers) forgets! Stay tuned…