My comments in red


Nineteen states or more, with half of Americas population, are moving to hold their presidential nominating primaries on Feb. 5, 2008, a mere three weeks after the Iowa caucuses and two weeks after the New Hampshire primary. We will now have a national primary - and the presidential nominating season will last only three weeks from start to finish.

The effect of this sea change: The front-runner in each party by the fall of 2007 will be virtually certain to win the nomination, because only the front-runner can possibly hope to amass enough money to compete in half the country on Feb. 5.

Money will now be king. Nothing else will count very much. If you can afford to run a national campaign three weeks after the first caucus, you will win. If you can't, you're doomed. And the polling that designates a front-runner now will do much to determine the nominee.

Big states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina, are moving their primaries up to Feb. 5.

They are going to be joined by a dozen smaller states, with many other states sure to join the move. After all, which state legislature wants to consign its voters to political irrelevance by voting in April or May ?

The financial demands of competing in each of these states are so onerous that only the richest of candidates can hope to win. That kind of money only goes to front runners.

This will strip the primary process of its power for the first time since it became the central way of selecting candidates after the 1972 reforms, and give the power to designate candidates to national public-opinion polls. It is the triumph of the pollsters and fundraisers.

Also, "virtual" primaries will now designate the front-runners. The republican virtual primary will be held on Fox news, and the conservative talk-radio shows and websites. The democratic virtual primary will be held on national public radio, PBS, liberal talk shows, the network news programs and websites like moveon.org where liberals congregate.

But what happens if the candidate chosen by this instant virtual lottery has feet of clay that only become evident when the candidate actually runs for office in a real election ?

Voters in each party will be buying a car without being able to take it for a drive.

The new process, bequeathed to us by the advancing of the primary dates, will reward the rich, the pollsters, and the talk shows. And politics will never be the same again.


Opinions ? Is this a measure of a civilization that is hedonistic ? Money, polls and media manipulation of opinion will choose our leaders for us ? Doesn't something seem corrupt about this entire process now ?