Do Platforms Drive Elections?

About this time of the election cycle - when there really is no actual news to report - journalists start to analyze all kinds of unrelated phenomena to try and find some "secret" clue to the winner of the next elections. In past years, it has been pinned to the Superbowl champions, World Series winners, the size of the blotch on Gorbachev's head, etc. This year, apparently, it is the size, wording, and hostility of each party's platform. Of course, the platforms for each party have not come out yet, and in light of this will probably be rewritten to fit this new "De Vinci Code" kind of methodology. Well, it is better than trying to tie the election to the Cicada Life Cycle. And it is not like the selection of John Edwards told us anything about this race.