The Chris Moeller Archives

Off on the wrong foot

How do Iowa Democrats continue to keep their stranglehold on the quadrennial first-in-the-nation caucus? The electoral results for the party do nothing to support their efforts. The most common case made for Iowa's unbalanced power around these parts has always been naked provincialism, which is hard to dispute, but I refuse to obey the alternative notion that Iowa voters are-- by nature of the system that's been in place-- more qualified or educated to cherry-pick the frontrunners in the presidential nomination process. Our voters seem just as gullible to the baffoons and cheats of the stump as those in the next state.

A party rules committee recommended Saturday that Iowa's top spot on the calendar be preserved for 2008, but it wedged the caucus of the Senate Minority Leader's home state of Nevada into the number 2 slot, ahead of the New Hampshire primary, and moved South Carolina's primary date up to just a week following the Granite State's. The argument being that minorities would be better represented by early voting in Nevada and South Carolina. But what it's really designed to do is give the "Blue Dog" or right-centrist Democrats more sway. (Only idiots would look to South Carolina to empower minorities, even to its Democrats.)

If you're not going to employ the fairest system, which is rotating all 50 states at the top of the political calendar, then use the most sensible system, that is, give the most power to the states most evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans or the most heavily populated. If the general election is going to be determined by the voters of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, let them also select the Democratic candidates that appeal most to them.

Democrats should also stop taking advice from Clinton strategists/apologists like Harold Ickes and Donna Brazile.

Republicans, I give you no advice. You're on your own.

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Sunday is Bruce Sutter's big day. You won't want to miss it. I presume the big event is being televised by ESPN Classic this year.

posted by CM @ 8:53 PM