And On the Eighth Day God Made the Iowa Caucus…
Posted by Adam Graham in : Presidential Race 2008Bill Richardson makes a rather odd statement in Iowa:
God’s will is for Iowa to have the first-in-the-nation caucus, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson told a crowd here today.
“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord should be the first caucus and primary,” Richardson, New Mexico’s governor said at the Northwest Iowa Labor Council Picnic.
While I believe Iowa is great as the nation’s first in the nation caucus. I’ve never quite considered it a divine decree. And while the Iowa Caucus with its core of well-informed voters who really care about the process is great, our entire current absurd primary calendar is not something I’d attribute to God.
Though, many people manage to blame God for all kinds of things that we cause ourselves, so why not frontloaded primaries?
Comment by Andrea Graham
If Iowa cares about this nation, it’ll do the right thing, take a bow, and step aside rather than fight this thing and push elections for 2008 into this year. It’s had it’s day in the sun. It’s pure selfishness to cling to it’s current position.
I understand why you don’t want everyone to have an equal/fair say, Adam (I am referring to a national primary) but if we can’t all vote on the same day, we should at the least take turns on who goes first–each state would get to vote first about once every fifty years with the state who votes first moving to the bottom of the list the following year. We could alphabetize the list, order it by the date a state joined the union, base it off geography or some other fair, non-biased order, such as population density or electoral college votes.
The primaries could be spread out over ten-twelve weeks in the spring of the election year.
I’m sure you’ll hate the idea, and I know Iowa will, but it’s the only fair way to do primaries. We are all equal states. Iowa is NOT better than the rest of us!
Comment by Adam Graham
That’s not a good idea because we want small states to go first with good geography and demographics. In addition, under a regional primary system, everyone would have a say. Iowa’s any greater than anyone elses. I think that in consideration for the best of the country, Wyoming, Florida, and the rest of them should move back in the month. I don’t think we should be mad at Iowa, but all the other states moving up.