SuperMegaCthulhu Tuesday: Now Mighty Illinois Moves Primary To February 5th

Wow. We're really going to finish this primary up in one day.

As many as 25 states could hold primaries that day, and Illinois joins several delegate-rich states in settling on the early date, including California, New York and New Jersey.

"As many as 25 states?" No, "as many as 48 states." Given that the contest will almost certainly be setted on that day, barring some less-than-likely almost-equal split in victories, there's simply no reason for any state to volunteer for probably-meaningless mop-up services after February 5.

Sure, if there is some near-even split, those few remaining states left to select delegates would become critical. But that seems a longshot.

Cons of the new system:

-- smaller candidates never have a real chance to "catch fire" by scoring wins or strong seconds in smaller, cheaper-to-politick states like New Hampshire and Iowa

Pros:

-- we have a national election; why shouldn't we have a national primary?

-- smaller candidates never really do "catch fire" with early small-state wins, anyway. They attract media attention and Time covers before losing to the establishment consensus candidate we all knew was going to win anyway.

-- we won't need to bother with that three or four months of back-page reporting on the only remaining candidate winning the last few remaining uncontested primaries.

-- We never have to hear again how about how thoughtful the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa are. As if the rest of us are morons or something.

posted by Ace at 03:44 PM

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