Will Iowa and New Hampshire ALWAYS Pick our President?

[Jack_Dawson]

I'm just wondering. I'm in California and didn't even get the fucking CHANCE to vote for Clark and frankly I'm quite pissed off about it. Will things ever change, or will Iowa, N.H. and the Media always wield this kind of control over everyone else?

-Bitter Guy

[politick]

1. there's been talk, obviously

about changing it all around. I don't think McAuliffe likes it very much. But the contests this year were so exciting, that I've heard that improves NH's chances of holding on to its slot.

And there is something important about retail politics. And if not NH, then where? What other state is more representative of the US?

The problem, as you alluded to, is the coronation of the media. They really inflate the importance of the early contests, and that has to change. A little time between primaries might also be of benefit.

[maggrwaggr]

I can't believe you ask that.

What state other than NH is more representative of the US?

sputter, sputter, cough cough ..... choke choke ....

What state is LESS representative of the US these days?

Good grief.

How many blacks you got in NH? Mexicans? Asians? Urbanites? People who have actually travelled?

You might as well go to New Brunswick and have a primary.

[Julien Sorel]

10. Retail politics is a joke.

In the end, people vote for whoever is on the TV, just like they did in New Hampshire. A waste of time and money. In fact, since TV now so thoroughly dominates the political process, all elections should be nothing more than a contest of commercials, with a couple of widely televised debates in between to maintain the fiction that policy is still relevant to the process . Might as well stop pretending and acknowkledge what this primary has made clear: if it plays on TV, it plays, otherwise it's meaningless.

[BootinUp]

26. Sadly, I tend to agree

All the retailin', all the months of campaining and those people in Iowa and NH couldn't make up their bleeping minds. It came down to the last week! Sheez I made up my mind before I ever saw the General debate, but after doing research (lots of it).

And they were strongly for Dean until the pol journalists and tv pundits beat them over the head with a club.

Damn it Jack! stop reliving this nightmare for a while. Lets talk about it in a couple months or something.

[Bread and Circus]

20. Here's the answer:

The swing states.

Each election cycle, we should rotate the early primaries
to the projected swing states. We need someone who can prove
popular in those states.

Rationality and strategy is what we need. The antique BS we
put up with is so lame.

[Jack_Dawson]

2. But...maybe I'D like to meet a candidate in a diner

sometime. Guess it ain't never gonna happen unless I become a farmer.

[Toucano]

3. No, they won't.

If Bush "wins" in 2004 it will be through cheating.

We've got a leader now for our coup d'fraud. He'll restore democracy.

LOL!

[tobius]

4. Live in CA too, many states would be better

qualified to represent our diverse country than Iowa and NH. Not only in regards to ethnicity, but also demographics across the board. Income levels, education levels, rural vs urban dwellers, types of subsidized economic bases, inter-racial marriage levels, GBLT representation,etc..etc..

always seemed to me to be a bit at odds with the declared openness of the dem party.

Democracy means decision by those concerned.
Carl-Friedrich von Weizsaecker

[Wapsie B]

5. I'd love to let someone else

have the chance. This dog and pony show that is the Iowa Caucus just sickens me. The day after everything's over we become irrelevant again. Other than putting $$ in the pockets of the local media and the hotel/restaraunt industry we get nothing out of this. The caucuses are a joke.

[theoceansnerves]

6. ugh i hope not

i think the caucus format is completely bogus, for one. and then to have one of the smallest states in the nation next after that? i think it's completely backwards.

[maggrwaggr]

7. you can bet your botox the results would be different if CA led the way

Why don't they mix it up? Have a lottery, or at least come up with a system where the states take turns?

Yeah, by the time we vote here, it's gonna be all over. What's the point?

I'm gonna go punch my measley little card for Howard Dean and he might not even be in the race by then.

[eileen from OH]

8. Bitter Guy, I am SO there

It's so bloody ironic that the states who seem to have the LEAST influence in the General Election have the MOST influence in the choice of our nominee.

With apologies (kinda/sorta) to our Iowa friends. . .

SCREW your caucuses, at least until they start to resemble something more like a primary and less like a combo church social/vote swap meet.

And with apologies (kinda/sorta) to our NH friends. . .

SCREW your primary, SCREW your "first in the nation" at least until you can somehow show that you actually offer some kind of representation of the opinions of the country as a whole. And SCREW you until you start delivering your itty, bitty state for the DEMs. At the very, very, least.


eileen "sitting here" in OH (and damned pissed that a state that's a "must win" has been totally ignored. If they want to gauge the nation, they need to start with our state. And they need to do it BEFORE March 2.)

[Wapsie B]

9. No apologies necessary.

n/t

[Toucano]

11. Damn right!

Ohio or Illinois would be far better states to start in.

I'm still voting my first choice on Super Tuesday. It's the only vote I have, so I'm going to cast it as I want.

It won't hurt the front runner or harm the second or third place guys anyway.

[DjTj]

12. They didn't pick the President in '92 or in '00.

...and I'm not ready to concede that they've done it this year either.

I don't think it's all that bad, but I like some of the ideas being thrown around about a rotating primary schedule, and perhaps some people here could start a movement to change the system.

Maybe that's something for the Dean Movement and the Draft Clark Movement to do after the Election.

[windansea]

13. it's a "tradition" you see

I wonder what percentage of Presidents and nominees come from east or west of the Missippi...even in the modern era of 48/50 states?

[aldian159]

17. I dunno,

but the first president born west of the Mississippi was Hoover, in some small IA town called west branch.

There's a pretty cool museum to Hoover at west branch, check it out if you're nearby.

[calimary]

14. I'm from California, too, Jack, and it steams me, but good, too.

I mean, WE are the biggest state in the nation (except for sheer acreage), with the biggest load of congressional representatives and the biggest load of electoral college votes. We have the biggest hispanic population, a nice, broad mix of many other ethnicities - probably every one imaginable, ours is the 6th largest economy in THE WORLD, and everybody everywhere seems to want to come here, or at least try to do as we do, wear as we wear, dance as we dance, eat as we eat, drive as we drive, and cut property taxes as we cut property taxes. "As California goes, so goes the nation" - is that old political adage. Ask anybody, stuck anywhere, on New Year's Day when the Rose Parade is beamed all over not just the country but the world, on an inevitably beautiful, sunny, warm California day. They look to our movies, our prime time stuff, our surf, our beaches, our beach-girls, our deserts, our mountains, our forests, our agriculture, our music, our technology, our tourist attractions, our trends, our fashion, our wine, our food, our attitudes about most things. Good AND bad. So WHY do we get stuck at the end of the line?

I'm still here wanting to vote for Howard Dean. But it's already been decided for me. The cafeteria's half closed and most of the entrees gone by the time I'm allowed to get to the food counter. And all anybody can talk about is Iowa, New Hampshire, and ESPECIALLY The South. Funny, isn't it? Especially when many people in those same three areas would probably prefer to move out here. After all, Horatio Alger never said "go South, young man." It's more like what every young person from every corner of the country wants to hear Simon Cowell say to him or her: "you're going to Hollywood!" (NOT Des Moines. NOT Concord.)

My apologies, as well, to fellow DUers (and everybody else, for that matter) from Iowa and New Hampshire. I'm sorry if this in any way sounds or appears demeaning to you. It's not meant that way. YES, OF COURSE, they count! It's just damned frustrating! But seems to me we, out here, ought to count just as much, if not more.
What are we out here, anyway, chopped liver? Chopped sushi maybe?

So what's the answer then? All the primaries on the same day, perhaps? At least that'd be a way to share the wealth.

[Jack_Dawson]

15. Well put...unfortunately the Iowa and NH stranglehold

will probably never change. They always make the candidates sign some pledge saying "we agree to come back and kiss your ass in another four years" or words to that effect. Face it, if you're in CA or Ohio or any other "late" state, we're basically disenfranchised.

[aldian159]

18. Horace Greeley, not Horatio Alger

Greeley was the editor of a major east coast paper.

Alger wrote rages to riches.

BTW, just got a flight to my family in Huntington Beach cause of that post. Thanks, gotta leave this fickle Chicago weather behind.

[Carolina]

22. I hear ya, calimary

and Jack. That's why I remain pissed that the media and the party hacks wanted this over before it hardly began. I encourage all of you in CA, OH, NY, TX, GA and other non-heard-from-yet states to vote as you would have BEFORE Iowa and NH led to the Kerry coronation. You can STILL upset the wagon and turn conventional wisdom on its head.

Then again, CA gave us Nixon, Reagan and put Arnold in the Governor's Mansion .... no offense to my DU CA brethren.

[SEAburb]

23. CA had it's say when it elected Arnold Gov

CA's are into cults of personalities.

The money factor of campaigning in CA is the biggest draw back.

[Jack_Dawson]

24. I know, that was embarrassing

[SeattleRob]

16. the media will continue to pick our candidates...

as long as people don't challenge them or ask critical questions.

[oc2002]

19. Maybe if Kerry loses in Nov.

there will be changes to the insider primaries system now in place.

There should be a one day national primaries vote, like a real election.

Everyone votes on the same day...what a concept?

sheesh.

[HFishbine]

21. No

Sometimes, they'll just pick our nominee.

[goodhue]

25. They did not pick Clinton!

So obviously not.