Nagourney: Primary Campaign to Go On Forever and Ever and Ever
Tiny, lovable scamp Adam Nagourney delivers a dire warning: democracy is ruined forever because all the states changed their primary dates.
It all started, as terrible threats to democracy do, in California. They decided to throw their stupid President-nominating vote in February instead of 2009, as originally scheduled. Then 48 other states decided to follow suit, along with Guam. Now the parties are worried that their candidates will continue having to campaign against each other well into the spring, visiting stupid backwater states to shake hands with loser factory workers instead of jetting off to tv studios in smart suits for interviews with important people.
Besides, with a 20-state Super Tuesday looming, how will journalistsfind time to drink?
But faced with such an expansive playing field and the fact that much of the campaigning in the Feb. 5 states will take place in the week before the voting, reporters and candidates will be spending so much time on planes that they probably won't have time to spend much money on the ground.
Don't you see, reporters have for years depended on having plenty of time for the hotel bars of Iowa and New Hampshire -- now they'll be stuck on airplanes watchingYou Me & Dupreeand eating terribly. For their sake, California, move your primary back to a date that allowed us to safely ignore all your Mexicans.