There has to be a better way

There has to be a better way

The combination of a front-loaded primary election schedule and the 24/7 news cycle have combined to pervert the presidential nomination process in ways that are disconcerting, if not alarming.

In the last week, Americans were led to believe by at least some commentators that on the basis of caucuses in Iowa and an election in New Hampshire, the candidacies of such former front-runners as Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton could be doomed.

That is perception dictating reality to a point of madness.

Forget that the two states in question do not between them represent 1.5 percent of the U.S. population. Forget that the demographics of the two states are far from representative of the nation as a whole. Forget, even, that that neither state’s primary system begins to assure that the winning candidate has been chosen by voters who actually represent their political parties. Iowa uses a convoluted caucus system that is subject to manipulation by well financed and better organized campaigns and New Hampshire has an open primary that encourages crossover voting.

Forget all those reasons why Iowa and New Hampshire should be nothing more than blips on a presidential primary screen and remember only this: We’re only in the second week of January. The national political conventions won’t be held until Aug. 25-28 in Denver (Democratic) and Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-Saint Paul (Republican). And the election is 10 months away.

Moving ahead

That said, it could be all over but the shouting by what’s being called Super Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5.

That’s the day 2,075 of the Democrats’ 4,040 delegates will be up for grabs in elections or caucuses in 24 states. That same day, 1,081 of the 2,075 Republican delegates will be decided.

It’s possible that there may still be some question by the time Ohio and California vote on M arch 4. The likelihood is slim that anything will still be in play by Pennsylvania’s primary on April 22.

And while the selection of a nominee is moving ahead at breakneck speed, what is missing is substance.

Speculation that Clinton was on the ropes was driven by little more than weekend polls, which are notoriously unreliable. So, one day Clinton was being projected as a double-digit underdog to Barack Obama. Now, her 3-point victory presumably gives her new momentum.

Meanwhile, voters and potential voters are being told more about who is the front-runner of the moment than about the kind of job any candidate would likely do as president. There’s more coverage of personalities than positions.

Candidates argue about who might be the bigger tax cutter, with nary a world about balancing the budget. Catch phrases pass for debate on the economy, immigration issues, health care and the war in Iraq. The budget deficit, the trade deficit, nuclear arms in Pakistan and a dozen other issues are virtually ignored.

This is no way to select the leader of the free world. It is no way for the United States to presume that it can remain one of the greatest nations on earth.