The Democrats' new old idea

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I like the idea of adding more states to the early primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire and this editorial deals with that.
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...the Democrats have been re-examining the way they chose their nominee, Sen. John Kerry, and some of them have found it wanting.

Kerry captured the nomination by charging up from the pack during the Iowa caucuses - more a measure of organizational skill than voter appeal - and whipping that shivering donkey to a New Hampshire win. The next morning, Jan. 28, 2004, this newspaper and many others reported that Kerry had "cemented his status as the front-runner" and the Democrats' die was cast - on the sentiments of less than 1.5 percent of the nation's population.

This sat badly with lots of party activists, who pointed out that these northern, largely rural, overwhelmingly white decision-making states scarcely represent the party's large minority and urban components. So, given the election results, they formed a commission to re-examine those early selection steps.

Last Saturday, the commission recommended that, while Iowa and New Hampshire should keep the early slots, at least two other states - perhaps as many as four, preferably in the South or the Southwest, with populations of 5 million or fewer but minority components of 15 percent or more - be added into that early mix. Members said they don't want to lose the door-to-door retail politics element, but want to spread it around. Some. They declined to propound a more precise formula.

More here: http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/112859117181470.xml&coll=2

I am so frustrated reading about stratedgies for the upcoming elections, it doesn't matter folks, unless we can get the votes counted.

In late 2003, Kerry was neither the party favorite or the media favorite. The media coverage dealt mostly with when he would drop out. The fact that he ran out of money until he mortgaged his house, shows he was not favored by the party He won Iowa through face to face meeting with people.

The changes seem designed to prevent what Kerry did - taking his case to the people in a relatively small state and personally winning them over. His organization in Iowa did a great job, but it depended on the candidate being able to win people. With several states happening at the same time, the only way to win will be to charm the media or to be the establishment candidate.

The process already gives the South an early say. After Iowa and NH, there was super Tuesday which had a large number of Southern states. So, the Southern states HAD more impact then NY,CA, NJ, MA, IL - all really big Democratic states who had later primaries. In fact, Clinton in 1992 lost Iowa and NH and simply had to stay alive until super Tuesday.

Last year, super Tuesday could have eliminated Kerry if there were a better alternative candidate. Dean and Clark both really imploded. Edwards, although charismatic, appeared less experienced and weaker than Kerry. I think streching out the primaries would have helped Kerry. It would have extended the primary season and lengthened the time people had seeing him win primaries. It would have eliminated the gap between winning the nomination and the convention.

I see the problem being McAuliff's packing all the later primaries so close together, not the attention to Iowa and NH.

They should have a single national primary on one day.
Give the candidates 3 weeks to state their case.
Most votes wins the nomination.
We've had way to many of the money and media whores as it is.