For too many years, gazillions of voters in California have watched sadly as New Hampshire, Iowa and other possibly fictional states (probably from Stephen King books) chose presidential candidates. Why did seven ethanol farmers in the Midwest and some sort of vampire-snow monsters in the "granite state" constantly pick some unelectable dingbat like Dukakis or Kerry or Mondale? Remember that Bill Clinton kid back in '92? He lost New Hampshire and Iowa.

While Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina still have a death grip on the Dem and GOP primaries, Nevada is doing a Democrat primary between those two, on January 19. And if "Married to the Kennedys" California guv Arnold Schwarzenegger gets his way, the most populous state would be right after S.C. in the first week of February.

An imaginary straw poll of Campaign 2008 reporters shows that by a 119-2 margin, the press corps wants to spend primary season in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and skiing at Lake Tahoe. The two who want to cover Iowa probably work for Tom Vilsack.

State aims for Feb. 5 primary to boost clout [LA Times]