THE PRIMARY SYMPTOM IS INSANITY
Jerry Fox


States are scrambling and stumbling all over each other trying to get a "say" in the presidential primaries so that their state's voters will not be "left out" of the candidate selection process.

At last count, 15 states were scheduled for the six week period from January 14, 2008 to February 28.  Many of them are smaller states with fewer electoral votes, but California has jumped in, and Florida and Illinois are taking a hard look at moving their primaries into that time period also.  That would make 17 states stretching from Hawaii to New Hampshire, to Florida, with a large number of stops in between.

Will this really produce a larger "say" in the process, or will it further diminish the already wacky process of candidate selection?  Here is what I think.

Candidates will be in a fund raising frenzy to try and raise enough cash to cover the television outlets in multiple population centers of all those states.  They will be spending a great deal of time in studios preparing positive life story spots with appeal to each such population center.;  They will be spending more time in studios with attack ads on the other candidates based on the findings of continuing "opposition research."
Who got drunk?  Who used drugs? Who had an affair?  Who has been married multiple times and what do their exes have to say about them?  Who has made a bunch of money in some quick turnaround deal that can be made to look fishy?  Who has had an illegal alien mow their lawn or watch their kids, or clean their house, etc.  

No candidate will have enough time to present themselves to those population centers as a "real" human being with "real" ideas and a "real" set of core beliefs and principles that resonate with those voters.  Some, probably most, will come across as opportunistic attack dogs who simply want the power of the presidency by persuading voters to simply deny the prize to everyone else.

It will turn out - as wise heads are already saying - to be simply about the money.  Which candidate can remain standing after the incredible bills that will come in from what amounts to a nationwide campaign to be carried out over those six weeks.  And that means that the "special interests" will once again hold sway over who shall lead this nation.

I am old enough to remember when ambitious politicians were vetted by party bosses.  They looked over the crop and decided who they wanted to present the face of their party to the voters, and rallied their party faithful behind those individuals.  At least then someone was paying attention to qualifications and electability before anyone else could do "opposition research."  Or at least that is the way it seemed.

Neither system is perfect.  But the current primary system has an emerging symptom of insanity.