Size matters
Dear editor:
It’s a sad old story that someone has to explain to the country, and especially me.
We are now in the presidential campaign time frame and every candidate, both Democrat and Republican, is spending a huge amount of time and millions and millions of dollars on two states that combined represent just one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s population. Iowa in the government’s 2006 estimate has a population of 2,982,085 or 0.996% of the country’s total. New Hampshire according to the same estimate has 1,235,786 or 0.413%.
It makes no sense that the major political parties use these two states to determine the outcome of the presidential nominee process for the rest of the country. Any candidate that comes in worse than third in any of these contests is considered damaged merchandise and is not “electable” by the parties. That is ignoring the opinion of the rest of the country, 295,180,613 or 98.591% of America’s total. Something is wrong here.
On top of that, the political parties are punishing any state (large or small) that has the audacity to schedule a caucus or primary prior to the two tiny early states. Something is definitely wrong here, just like the old time, smoke filled backroom power brokers who used to decide.
No one wants to give an unfair advantage to any large or small state to determine the candidates on the party tickets, but something has to change. Is it time to bring forth a national primary day? Seems to me that is the only solution for a fair and equitable choosing. It’s too late this time, but it must change before 2012, which I figure will see candidates running the day after the new president is sworn in on January 9, 2008.
It’s a sad old story that someone has to explain to the country, and especially me.
We are now in the presidential campaign time frame and every candidate, both Democrat and Republican, is spending a huge amount of time and millions and millions of dollars on two states that combined represent just one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s population. Iowa in the government’s 2006 estimate has a population of 2,982,085 or 0.996% of the country’s total. New Hampshire according to the same estimate has 1,235,786 or 0.413%.
It makes no sense that the major political parties use these two states to determine the outcome of the presidential nominee process for the rest of the country. Any candidate that comes in worse than third in any of these contests is considered damaged merchandise and is not “electable” by the parties. That is ignoring the opinion of the rest of the country, 295,180,613 or 98.591% of America’s total. Something is wrong here.
On top of that, the political parties are punishing any state (large or small) that has the audacity to schedule a caucus or primary prior to the two tiny early states. Something is definitely wrong here, just like the old time, smoke filled backroom power brokers who used to decide.
No one wants to give an unfair advantage to any large or small state to determine the candidates on the party tickets, but something has to change. Is it time to bring forth a national primary day? Seems to me that is the only solution for a fair and equitable choosing. It’s too late this time, but it must change before 2012, which I figure will see candidates running the day after the new president is sworn in on January 9, 2008.
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 11:24 AM
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