There are times in our lives when we have ideas that perhaps do not work as effectively as we wish. Sometimes it is because the ideas are flawed, riddled with problems that are obvious only in execution. At other times it is because the tools we might use to execute those ideas have problems, like words that can’t quite convey the desired meaning.
Then there are the moments when ideas suffer from both.
On a different subject, I had an idea. It was this: to convey the complexity of Super Tuesday’s Democratic presidential nominating contests by demonstrating that what was at stake wasn’t winning 14 elections in various states. Instead, it was the more than 1,000 delegates awarded to any candidate receiving at least 15 percent of the vote in nearly 180 different geographic areas. The states themselves, yes, but also each congressional district in the states. Win 15 percent of the vote in a congressional district in Alabama, and you win at least some share of that district’s delegates.
