May 10, 2007

Primary Madness an Opportunity?

by Cliopatria

Columnist David Broder echoes my comments and those of many others on the upcoming presidential primary fiasco. Front-loading the primaries is really, really, really insane.

However, there could be a good—or at least interesting—outcome. The nomination might not be settled before the convention.

Rick Shenkman has been arguing for a while that political bosses nominated stronger presidential candidates than the primary system gives us today. We might just get a chance to see.

More Comments:

Oscar Chamberlain - 5/10/2007

Distinction noted and accepted.

HNN - 5/10/2007

Just to be clear: I don't argue that the bosses nominated stronger candidates. I do argue that they used more serious criteria in making their selections--an example I would hope the rest of us would follow. They did not select candidates on the basis of hair, pretty children, or ability to tell a one-liner.

Rick Shenkman