What does everyone think of the current primary season for elections?
Is it unfair that Iowa and New hampshire get to choose who Ohio, Florida and California get to vote for?
Proposed: Have a national primary day 6 months before the election. Every state would hold its primary exactly 6 months before the election.
The positives are that the election season which is way, way, way too long would be shortened significantly. All states would have a say.
The negatives are that the candidate with the most money(best fund raising)would probably win. The smaller states would be ignored.
Anyone else have any suggestions as to how to shorten the election cycle? Speaking for myself i was sick of all the ads and the bias from the media(on both sides) where they were not covering the issues but the personalities and spending their time looking for background dirt.
I think the opposite. The problem this cycle is that the primary season was so compressed. It was over within four weeks of Iowa.
Dragging these things out is an important part of the process for training the future president. Make him put on his longjohns and work the entire country. Make him do 100 debates with his opponents. Make him flip pancakes from coast to coast.
At the end of that process you get a man who knows the country from coast to coast and who has defended his positions from thousands of questions.
Look how well Kerry did in the debates. Running for president is a growing experience. Keep it that way.
I would rather see a longer, rather than a shorter, primary season. You learn a lot more about candidates the longer things go. Presumed front runners can fall apart. A new voice can get some momentum and the cash needed to win in larger media markets. We should take the time we need to elect the leader of the Free World. Why rush things?
Whether we should always start with New Hamshire and Iowa is a different question.
I agree with making it longer and more involved, and I think you need to bring the guys back and forth across the country. That way he can’t wear a NorthEastern hat for a couple weeks, and then switch to the South for a few weeks and then switch to the Midwest for awhile, etc, etc. Make him bounce back and forth so people will be able to keep track of whether or not the candidates change message.