[Originally published at The Political Dogfight as part one of four this is a slightly edited version.]
I seriously question the value of the new Primary System developed by the DNC then jumped on by other opportunistic states. February 5, 2008 looms large as a result of these changes.
David Brooks recently had a column about the advice he had for Republican candidates. It was his contention that all the primaries on Feb. 5, 2008 wouldn’t be the decisive ones. He still thought the traditional first three primaries would set the media tone. And he thought the Media tone would set the race on the first Tuesday of Feb.
While I don’t agree that the first three primaries will decide the race, and I don’t agree with Brooks in general, I think he is absolutely right about a slightly different topic: Media Tone
Think of the situation today as seen in the daily papers and on the news programs! According to them there are only 3 real candidates in the race: Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and John Edwards…and John Edwards is coming in a weak third in terms of media coverage. (Or his was until the unfortunate announcement of his wife’s recurring health issues.]
This issue of Media Tone/Media Noise is the real problem.
A few candidates are sucking the Media Oxygen out of the atmosphere and leaving other truly qualified candidates without the ‘free’ media (news) that they need to become more widely known. If this is happening to John Edwards think of the others.
Think of Joe Biden or Chris Dodd. Whether they are your favorites or not, they deserve to be heard and considered. Each of them has substantive experience and each is just as substantive as Hillary Clinton, Obama and John Edwards.
(More on this topic another time: Rhetoric vs Substance and Goverance in the Election of 2008. )
Will candidates that aren’t getting the ‘free’ media of the Clinton’s etc., have even a fighting chance in 2008? Will they be able to raise the $25-$40Million they need by the fall? If they can’t will this silence voices that should be heard?
I think that forshortening the race does the country and the party a diservice. Now we have an Invisible Primary already in progress with people being labeled winners and losers….and it’s all in the media’s programming…..it’s pure Media Noise.
Since it has no actual voting today, this Primary, since it’s all in the Media and nowhere else, I call ‘The Invisible Primary’. And that Invisible Primary is in full swing.
I despair that we will again nominate people who seem great in short primary seasons,(Gore who was annointed and Kerry who came from nowhere in the most unusual Primary in memory), and then we saw they didn’t have an Authentic voice on the campaign trail! They didn’t know how to remove the Political Mask.
I believe that the American people hunger for an Authentic Voice, not the politicians mask that so many wear and use to speak. My desired outcome would be to have a nominee with an Authentic voice that is backed by large scale experience and augmented by roadmaps to tangible goals with benchmarks built in to those roadmaps.
Rhetoric, however seductive, will not win. Fundraising shouldn’t be a qualifier either for the nominee.
This is Part 1 of more to come on ‘The Invisible Primary’. Stay tuned for more parts and metrics on the numerics of February 5, 2008.
These early primaries will be such a horrifying unmitigated disaster that by 2012 the entire system will need to be changed. Whether they continue to pander to those dumb-asses in New Hampshire and separate the primaries by timed intervals, or work towards a national primary day, I don’t know. What I do know is two thing, the primary system will be a short disaster, and New Hampshire sucks!
Any thoughts one Rep. Sandy Levin’s proposal (Below)?
“RUSH TO THE FRONT” SPOTLIGHTS NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE REFORM OF PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING SYSTEM
Interregional Primary Bill Sets Six Elections with Each Region Represented Every Election
(Washington D.C.)- With just a year until the traditional Super Tuesday Presidential primary, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) today introduced the “Interregional Presidential Primary and Caucus Act of 2007,” a bill that would create an interregional system for the selection of delegates to Presidential nominating conventions through primaries and caucuses. Levin called his bill a “long overdue step towards fixing the broken system of the Presidential primary and caucus schedule.”
“Instead of states making a mad dash to the front of the line, we need an orderly primary and caucus system that combines the need to bring Americans truly into the decision-making process with the need to allow candidates the opportunity to interact meaningfully with citizens throughout the nation,” said Levin. “This legislation spaces out the primary dates over several months, requiring candidates to establish themselves in multiple states. At the same time, each primary date will include at least one state from every region in the country, which will ensure that a broad spectrum of Americans’ views is accounted for in the selection process.”
“The current nomination system unfairly gives a small number of states – far from fully representative of the nation as a whole – a head start and has led to a number of states rushing to the front of the line to rectify this unbalance. The result is a front-loaded, frantic primary calendar so disorganized that it could minimize rather than maximize a real testing of our candidates. Such testing is an important part of our vital Presidential selection process,” concluded Levin.
State legislatures around the country are scrambling to move up their primary or caucus dates to give their states more of a say in the presidential nominee selection process – known as “front-loading.” In 2008, the Party nomination race may well be over by February 5th.
The Interregional Presidential Primary and Caucus Act of 2007
6 Elections — March through June
Each Region Represented in Each Election
States Rotate Every 4 Years
Levin?s plan would break down the country into six regions, with six-sub regions. The schedule is as follows:
— Second Tuesday in March
— First Tuesday in April
— Fourth Tuesday in April
— Second Tuesday in May
— Fourth Tuesday in May
— Second Tuesday in June
The regions and sub-regions would be broken down in the following:
Region 1: (A) Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont; (B) Massachusetts; (C) Connecticut, Rhode Island; (D) Delaware, New Jersey; (E) New York; (F) Pennsylvania
Region 2: (A) Maryland; (B) West Virginia; (C) Missouri; (D) Indiana; (E) Kentucky; (F) Tennessee
Region 3: (A) Ohio; (B) Illinois; (C) Michigan; (D) Wisconsin; (E) Iowa; (F) Minnesota
Region 4: (A) Texas; (B) Louisiana; (C) Arkansas, Oklahoma; (D) Colorado; (E) Kansas, Nebraska; (F) Arizona, New Mexico
Region 5: (A) Virginia; (B) North Carolina; (C) South Carolina; (D) Florida; (E) Georgia; (F) Mississippi, Alabama
Region 6: (A) California; (B) Washington; (C) Oregon; (D) Idaho, Nevada, Utah; (E) Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming; (F) Hawaii, Alaska
For the first Presidential election this Act would apply to, the Election Assistance Commission would determine by lottery the order in which each sub-region would hold its caucus or primary. If a state goes first during one cycle, it will go sixth (last) in the next cycle, and fifth in the following cycle, moving up one slot each cycle. During a 24-year rotation, then, every state will have occupied every primary and caucus slot exactly once.
This law will apply to a Presidential election taking place more than two years after the law?s enactment.