The party is now assembling that platform on which the eventual nominee must stand or run or fall or whatever.

This last criteria is judged on the basis of whether the nominee is "running an ideological crusade".

The result, so far, has been pretty predictable: an extremely well-qualified presumptive nominee running a lackluster campaign.

Republican nominee, Jack Orchulli, ran as fiscal conservative and social moderate.

Also running in the 1854 election were the American Party and nominees of the Temperance movement.

Starting in 1978, the nominees for governor and lieutenant governor ran on a joint ticket.

Those nominees then run in the general election on an at-large basis in their judicial districts.

Which means that come November, when the nominees must run as a pair on the same ticket, everything is not always buddy-buddy.

Some nominees have run into serious trouble by talking too much, but the current tactic of saying nothing of substance is not the answer.

For most of the last 20 years, there have been few second acts for Democratic Presidential campaigns: nominees have run, lost, left the national scene.