How the Parties Pick a President

The L.A. Times reports:

Republicans tend to operate in a more top-down fashion, with the party establishment rallying around an early favorite who benefits by garnering the most money and endorsements. There is little place for insurgents. As GOP pollster Fred Steeper says, since 1960 every Republican who has led the Gallup Poll in the August before an election year has gone on to win the party's nomination. Republicans tend to be "careful, prudent," Steeper said. "They're more comfortable with … somebody who's gone around the track."

That's an interesting fact.