Saturday, January 26, 2008

Media Amok or Primaries Gone Wild

Iowa. New Hampshire. One picks Huckabee; the other McCain. One picks Obama; the other Hillary. This is Democracy? A few odd states eliminate the choices all the rest of us can make?

Had the U. S. electorate a shred of intelligence, no one would care what delegates these curious states select. But the news media in their frenzy whip up the populace and the politicians with polls and predictions, with spin, with "analysis" to the point of no return. And now we have Florida, punished by the parties for voting too early (though much later than other states) by having half the delegates in the Republican Convention and none in the Democratic Convention. This makes sense? This is Democracy? But South Carolina with its two different primaries on two different dates ahead of Florida and Super Tuesday deserves the attention and reverence of all the rest of us. Yea, Right! That's the way it should be. Uh Huh.

The electoral college (click for a great overview)
has been a mistake from the beginning. The leader of our country should be elected by the people of the nation, not by an absurd count of state chosen electors. And the candidates for each political party should be elected in a nation wide primary. It is that simple.


History is proof, if reason and logic don't suffice. Look at the oddities of elections past when the electoral college defied the electorate. U. S. News and World Report has a nice summary of the poor record:

U.S. News has selected some of the presidential campaign moments that have made a difference in shaping history.

http://www.usnews.com/features/news/politics/greatmoments.html


As America cries out for change, I say let's change the way we choose our President!


Jack


1 comment:

  1. Nole did great but I am rooting for Tsonga. Go Jo!!!!!!!!!

    thetennischick.blogspot.com

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