Chuck Todd, host of the beltway establishment's favourite political chatshow, Meet the Press, asked Obama outright during his previous television interview in September: "What's the rationale for this election?
[Page A21.] All through the day, Mr. Bush broadly summed up the rationale for his election, portraying himself as a uniter who would "bring America together" to deal with the problems facing Social Security, Medicare and struggling schools.
"A rationale for judicial elections is that meaningful debate should periodically take place concerning the overall direction of the courts and the role of individual judges in contributing to that direction," said a Michigan Supreme Court decision in March.
Mr. Kerry's efforts to use the disappearance of the explosives to question the president's competence as commander in chief, both on Iraq and on domestic security, signaled that he would take aim directly at Mr. Bush's chief rationale for re-election: that he is better prepared to lead a war against terrorists.
Indeed, the memory of the Bush presidency represents one of the few things the president still has going for him as he seeks an economic rationale for his re-election.
Her rationale for holding a snap election isn't just nonsensical; it's insidious.
At the last election, the rationale for making these cuts was that otherwise Britain would end up like Greece.
One rationale for holding an obviously rigged election, political scientists say, is that outside of a few monarchies in the Middle East, military juntas and at least nominally Communist countries like China or Cuba, the countries often have no other mechanism to bestow legitimacy.
But Mrs Hutchison has raised some serious arguments against Mr Perry, particularly the idea that 14 years is too long for one person to hold power; Mr Perry is already the longest-serving governor in Texas's history.It is also true that the main rationale for Mr Perry's re-election is the state's economic performance.
Obama himself played to this dynamic early on, saying that in a crowded field of talented Democratic contenders the rationale for his campaign was that his election would tell every child in this country that anything was possible.
But Mr. Rice has had a hard time articulating a clear policy rationale for his candidacy in the May 9 election, and listening to him can at times seem like being in a time warp as he returns to the rhetorical flourishes the mayor employed against Mr. Booker four years ago.
