Mock Convention is quite possibly the most storied collegiate political organization in the nation. For over a hundred years, Mock Con been featured in the New York Times, witnessed by former presidents, and drawn the interest of politicos from coast to coast. How did this happen? Why does a small liberal arts school in the mountains of southern Virginia garner so much national attention? To answer this question, we have to take a trip back in time. In 1908, a certain William Jennings Bryan visited Washington and Lee. In honor of his visit, students decided to throw an impromptu mock political nominating convention and proclaim him the Democratic nominee for president….and they were right. Fast forward to 1924: the Democratic presidential field is wide open, with a few major political players but no real frontrunner. In Lexington, Mock Con picks a no-name candidate with virtually no hope of securing the nomination. That is, until a few months later when John W. Davis was chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee after a record 103 ballots. How on earth did Washington and Lee do it? No one had ever even heard of John Davis before the Democratic Convention, and he did not even emerge as a respectable compromise candidate until well into the voting process. While no one will ever quite know that answer for sure (though I would like to think it was because of the dedication and intuitiveness of Washington and Lee students, not because John W. Davis was the only W and L grad running for president in 1924), the New York Times dispatched a writer to Lexington to cover the story. Hence, the legend of Mock Con was born. Since then, Mock Con has garnered a reputation of being the political version of Nostradamus, correctly predicting over 90% of presidential nominees for the party out of power.

With all of that being said, and before you decide to start patting yourself on the back for going to a school with such an omniscient political organization, there is one small catch. In order to maintain this reputation, and maintain our position as the nation’s premier collegiate prognosticators, we actually have to keep getting the prediction right. While consistently outperforming every other political forecasting group in the nation might sound easy in theory, it can actually be a touch difficult to pull off. This is where we need your help. Each person on this campus has their own set of political connections and ideas. If you are willing to put in time for political research, happen to be personal friends with the chairman of the Texas GOP, or just have a tendency to correctly predict winning football teams every weekend, you too can be an asset to mock con. In order to ensure a correct prediction, we will develop contacts in every state and analyze every major trend in national politics.

While the convention itself is not until January of 2012, we have already started to identify potential candidates and assess who would thrive in various political environments. The first real indicator will come in November, when we will gauge issue saliency in the midterm elections. After that, we will pick certain key issues that will help define the 2012 election cycle. At the same time though, we must maintain enough flexibility to adapt to new issues and potential candidates that can emerge virtually overnight. Four years ago Barack Obama was a political outsider with virtually no shot at defeating the Clinton machine, and four years before that Howard Dean was the frontrunner for the nomination. In early 2008, the War in Iraq was going to be the most defining issue (not named Bush) in the presidential election. Yet, despite all of these “sure things”, Obama beat Clinton, Howard Dean was undone by an ill advised scream, and an economic collapse put Iraq on the backburner. In light of all this, correctly predicting the Republican nominee over 7 months before the actual nominating convention is by no means going to be easy. However, if you are willing to join the political team, and probably miss out on a few hours sleep, together, we can once again do the impossible.

At this point, I am sure you have been inspired by my grandiloquent ruminations and cannot wait to sign your life away to the political silo of mock con. So, what positions are available to you? The next round of interviews will determine state chairs. These chairs are responsible for conducting political research in their respective states; organize their delegation, and building a phenomenal float for the mock con parade. After that, further selections will be made for state delegates. Delegates are not as heavily involved in the research side, but they still have the opportunity to provide valuable insight, and/or end of on the front page of the New York Times.

Most Sincerely,
Zach