Does America Need To Rethink Its Nominating Process?

Full of rallies, debates, and state fairs, it’s been the longest primary campaign season ever.

But once the voting starts in Iowa on Jan. 3, the 2008 presidential primary season could look like democracy in fast-forward, as caucuses and primaries will roll by every few days.

Many experts believe both the Democratic and Republican races will be decided as early as February 5th, a day when nearly two dozen states open their polls (see map below).

Is front-loading the calendar hurting the system of selecting presidential nominees? Below, you’ll see a list of the leading ideas on how to reform the system.

http://www.wisn.com/politics/14907617/detail.html

Oops, wrong thread, sorry.

this bs was invented in a time with no easy communication in rural areas.

ridiculous. superdelagates?! wtf!!!

lets just vote. make it easy for everyone, and count the damn things!

Don't you guys get sick of a 4 years presidential campaign?

To an outsider it seems like a gross waste of time, energy, money, emotional distress, etc., etc.

Would all these precious resources be more useful if directed elsewhere?

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Umm, yeah. :-)

There are 50 different sets of rules, anybody who wants to can run, the central authority of the DNC seems to have little control over the process, candidates can choose public financing or not... Adding some standardization or removing some chaos from the situation BY DEFINITION means exerting central control. Populists shouldn't like that I would think.



(I clicked on that link 3 times before i got it. Lol!)

I like the nominating process overall. I like that it starts with a few states and it continues growing. It's a decathlon. It tests all of your political skills. The candidates have to retail campaign, organize, run ads, develop policy, etc. The size and scope of the race changes throughout. The person that has done all the little stuff and survives the national day is usually the winner. I think this is a fantastic process.

There should be a few changes. The convention is always at the end of the summer. The calendar should be pushed back. The elections should last around 2-3 months. Start in March. End in May. IA and NH should still be first. I like the addition of SC and NV. I like that they are on separate days. Then the number of states should start increasing. "Super Tuesday" should be the absolute last day. It will be like the super bowl. That way everyone has a chance.

There needs to be a way to order the states after the first 2-4. Maybe randomly select them? I don't think regional makes sense. Candidates should be forced to run all over the place. One possibility is to make Super Tuesday the last day. Pick Super Tuesday states randomly. Then work backwards randomly. Making Super Tuesday truly super will go a long way in solving this problem. It allows everyone to vote.

I'm sorry. I fixed it. At the link are various alternative plans and videos. I am not advocating for any particular plan, but I do think the current system is not working for us.

you think is best. Here are the current results:

Which alternative primary system do you think works best?
Choice Votes Percentage of 95 Votes
American Plan 26 27%
Delaware Plan 1 1%
Interregional Plan 30 32%
National Primary Day 19 20%
Regional Plan 6 6%
The current system works. Don't Change it.
5 5%
Other 8 8%
Thanks for voting. Stay tuned to see what the parties decide to do with the system.

"Below, you’ll see a list of the leading ideas on how to reform the system" and the link takes you to the DU page to write a post, as in, OUR ideas.

but unfortunately, just spacey!

the other states.

I love how in Iowa the candidates walk the streets, shake hands with the voters.
But the media didn't give equal treatment to the candidates.

By the time other states get to vote, the election is pretty much decided for them.


For example, by the time I get to vote it will be a 2 person race.

And watching the Iowa caucus on C-Span, I was not impressed.
If nothing else, I wish Iowa would just be a straight vote.
Let them go to their precincts and talk about the candidates, but then let them vote instead of playing musical chairs.


Something just doesn't seem right.

I don't have an answers, but something needs to change.