How Crazy Would It Be?

Filed under:Not Cool,Politics,Priorities — posted by Anwyn on January 29, 2008 @ 7:46 am

For the parties to mandate that all primary elections/caucuses be held on the same day?

I don’t like having my candidate chosen by default through the elimination processes of other people. And the influence on voters of who won other states shouldn’t be discounted, either.

I know I said I wasn’t going to be quick to name my next candidate, but if Giuliani drops out, that’s two candidates removed from my choosing long before my state’s primary even gets here. Leaving me to vote for a candidate by default rather than by preference. And it sucks.

3 comments »

  1. Same here. I’m starting to wonder what the point is.

    Comment by jae — January 29, 2008 @ 8:44 am

  2. OK, I’m ready. I’ve picked a candidate. I’m voting for Fred Thompson here in Georgia on Feb. 5. Yep, ready to cast my vote for…

    Wait a minute. He what now?

    Crap.

    Comment by Gib — January 29, 2008 @ 11:28 am

  3. Well, I agree it should be regional and rotational, but making them all on one day would by necessity force the candidates to only campaign in the big states, where they would hope to gain the most delegates and use their funds most efficiently to get delegates, which is after all, what its all about.

    Really, I think that would cause a very short, compressed election cycle without testing the candidates. For all its faults, our system has a way of winnowing out those who are not up to the task. Its really the only test there is to see if someone is fit to be President of the most powerful country in the world- Edwards and Obama presumed to be up to the task after less than one term in the Senate. Others, like Wesley Clark, with no political experience at all. How can we know if these people can handle the pressure and the politics, which is what the job most entails?

    The answer is a long, hard campaign trail that tests them physically and mentally and puts them in contact with as many voters, in one way or another, as possible.

    The ebb and flow, the ups and downs, all, in their way, inform us and are good for the system. Really, we are all voting with dollars and other support before Iowa and NH, and we affect those contests by what we say and do.

    I do think their monopoly must end and a regional rotation, with groups of states voting every few weeks, would be much fairer than the haphazard thing we have now.

    Now we have Hillary wanting to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan, supposedly denied for jumping ahead. If they are, how far will the ’12 states jump? To the preceding December? November? Where will it end.

    Iowa and NH had their era, it should end now,and events are working toward that.

    Comment by docweasel — January 30, 2008 @ 4:17 am

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