THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

There was a time when primaries mattered. Candidates would go from state to state, and actually meet voters across America. In 1968, there was true drama, as RFK slogged into California. Even in 1988, several democrats had a legitimate shot at getting trounced by George HW Bush.

2008 is bordering on lunacy. It reminds me of the line by Comedian Steven Wright, talking about an airline flight he had on “Air Bizarre.” The company slogan was “Leave any Monday, we’ll bring you back the previous Friday.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/21/new-hampshire-moves-up-primary-to-january-8/

As states play games of leapfrog to be first in line, all it does is create a longer general election campaign. By 2004, John Kerry had wrapped up the nomination in early March, leading to an eight month general election campaign. Given that a presidential term is 48 months, that means President Bush spent 17% of his first term running for reelection. That is simply too long to be distracted from actually governing. Perhaps we need to finish the election 6 months early so the liberals can count every vote, which I think means waiting for their only remaining loyal voters to finish law school, flunk the bar exam once or twice, and be ready for battle.

Campaign season typically began after Labor Day, in terms of a general election. It was 10 weeks to the finish line. The conventions were held in July and August. Given that the primaries ended in June, that gave the top candidates precious weeks if not days to pick a running mate, and then be ready at the convention.

The logic to a quick coronation of one particular candidate in the primaries is that it gives that candidate enough time to be on par with an incumbent, thereby reducing the disadvantage. However, all the truncated primaries did in 2004 was give the nomination to an untested individual in John Kerry.

In 1988, the Bush campaign led by Lee Atwater was able to go after Michael Dukakis on the Willie Horton issue because Al Gore brought it up first, and Dukakis never addressed it in an adequate manner. However, in 1992, Bill Clinton got pulverized by Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown, which only strengthened him in the general election campaign.

Political parties are scared that intraparty divisions will lead to a fractured convention and an electoral loss. This is nonsense. Intraparty disagreements are healthy. In addition, intraparty disputes tend to be nastier, because the differences are often personal, rather than ideological. A candidate who survives a vicious primary is at the very least battle tested. John Kerry was simply not tested in the primaries because his victories were based on him being “electable,” as opposed to Howard Dean.

Being not Howard Dean is not enough. My saying I am not Charles Manson does not mean I am an angel. The threshold should be higher.

June became March for California. Other states then moved to February. Now California has moved to early February. Iowa decides in January. Why not December? Heck, why not today? Don’t the people in Dixhill Notch, New Hampshire have to get up and vote at midnight, because they are representative of…well…Dixhill Notch, New Hampshire?

The media loves dark horses, but dark horses run marathons, not sprints. With less time to get messages out, those with the most money and most time on television can run the political primary table in days. This sacrifices ideas and policy proposals for the sake of strategy. Well let’s see, Hillary Clinton might run best among 18-24 year old transvestites who watch “Desperate Housewives,” while Barack Obama could be the choice of the women between ages 19.2 and 26.7 who watch “The Bachelor.” Do the people have to watch it when it comes on? What about those who tivo one and watch the other twice?

Metrics replaces substance. We are told that the election is about gay black women who like polka music, and candidates oblige by being seen on camera playing the accordian at a meeting of homosexual NAACP members.

Ideas only work as presentable when there is enough time to present them. A one hour Powerpoint presentation is meaningless against a 30 second video on You-tube. The clock moves faster and faster, and the quality becomes cheaper and cheaper. Picking a president to run the world’s largest economy and military must be done with a careful vetting process. Tougher primaries lead to stronger general election candidates.

The political parties need to push back New Hampshire to March or April. There could then be regional primaries. Either way, a 9 month general election with untested candidates is the least desirable option.

At the rate we are going, it will not matter anyway. Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden are the frontrunners for the 2012 nomination, and Sam Brownback and Christopher Dodd are leading in the 2016 Iowa caucuses. For the many of you who do not know who these people are…it is not your fault. Nobody knows who they are because the primaries were over the moment they began.

In fact, I think the election was yesterday. I hope my candidate won. If they did, I hope they know about it. They had better pass some policies fast. Within 12 months of taking office, they will need to start running for reelection. Maybe they can save time by just skipping the whole boring process of selecting a cabinet. It is not like the people will be vetted anyway.

eric

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.