Monday, January 07, 2008

Grousing about the primary system

It's become quite fashionable to bitch about the primary system. The chief complaint is that little states like Iowa and New Hampshire have too much of an impact on the selecting of each party's nominee. That doesn't bother me so much. After all, small states have a stake in this and someone has to be first. Plus it's good that the candidates have to actually schmooze everyday people in small towns rather than simply running TV spots on network television.

My big beef with New Hampshire is the "open primary" that they run. If you are an independent you can vote in either the GOP or Democratic primary. I think that's total bunk. That's like allowing the Southern Baptist convention to have a say in the next Pope is. How about picking a party?

What we end up getting out of New Hampshire is often a winner that really has no chance of getting the nomination. The polls agree that McCain will probably win tomorrow night but it will be on the basis of independent voters that like his "moderate" stances. Meanwhile conservative Republicans around the country have McCain way down on their list and no win in New Hampshire, no matter how big, is going to change that. So what we'll have is a lot of media hyperventilation about a candidate that honestly is not going anywhere.

1 comment:

Alex said...

Agreed. That's why I think a much-touted Obama victory, even if it had come to pass, would not have meant anything. By now the people of NH are so enamored of their role, they register independent just for the heck of it.

My big beef: people who can't differentiate between a caucus and a primary and above all the media who won't point out the difference. If you look at how the Iowa caucus work, you'll realize they have zero reliability to predict a nominee or who can win nationally. The media just wants to keep the drama going.