[Artemis Webb]

If we get stuck with another limp wristed RINO afraid to go on the attack I'm going to have drink a bottle of Cabo Wabo and leap off a cliff.

[Artemis Webb]

I apologize for the ping but you strike me as the most likely person to know the answer to this question.

[Kenny]

Thank you for addressing this major problem.

[Krodg]

Don’t just a few states have an actual voice? That needs to change.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Arizona doesn’t need him now either.

[ZULU]

If you want to REALLY make sure no more McCainiacs get nominated, starte getting active NOW.

Run for local Republican Committee positions, be willing to get out there and walk the streets, stuff envelopes, man phone banks and contribute money for CONSERVATIVE Republicans.

Throw solicitations from the RNC in the garbage where they belong.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

[Paladin2]

Eschew Juanabies.

[Right_in_Virginia]

This is a question for Michael Steel . . . and he better be working on changing just who chooses the Republican presidential candidate!

[r9etb]

The problem isn't open primaries. The problem is that both parties have increasingly squashed their entire primary seasons into a couple of "big" multi-state days.

"Super Tuesdays" warp the entire process. When you shove everything up front, one bad day will kill a campaign. Money becomes more volatile -- big donors want to back "the winner," however poor a candidate he may be; rather than wasting their money on a loser who may nevertheless be the best person for the general election.

The accelerated primary season also means that there's no such thing as real debate in these campaigns anymore. The "debates" are incredibly stupid, because the candidates' strategies are necessarily geared toward killer soundbites.

There's simply no time for a good candidate to develop and emerge over a period of 3-4 months, with : it's all over by February.

What the Republican Party leadership really needs to do, is to begin a serious process of recruiting a few really serious candidates -- and the sooner the better. I'm talking about a return to old real "smoky back room" stuff that the primaries were designed to do away with.

The Party has a responsibility to ensure that its candidates are viable -- which means, in part, that they're acceptable across a broad-enough range of the party that the candidates themselves can settle down to real issues.

The primaries would still sort these guys out, of course -- supposing that they can be spread out more evenly between March and June, with big states coming later. To HELL with that idiocy of letting Iowa and New Hampshire decide who's viable and who's not.

Another needed reform has to do with the assigning of delegates. The "winner take all" approach is also a disaster. The Republicans have got to come up with a way so that good candidates still have a chance after a mediocre primary.

[Mogollon]

Withold money to the RNC until they close all GOP primaries.

[yongin]

A good place to see the future regarding open vs closed primaries would be California. Currently CA primaries allow only registered GOP voters and unaffiliated voters to vote in GOP primaries. The grass root conservatives want only registered Republicans to vote in the primaries. While the CA GOP leadership wants open primaries. What happens in CA could impact nationally the debate of having open vs closed primaries.

[Kevmo]

Here’s how I think primaries should be organized:

My suggestion is basically to hold the first primary in the state that has the highest percentage of GOP votes in the last election, the 2nd primary in the 2nd highest, and so on. 2 primaries a week for 25 weeks, with the last primaries being the suckup-to-the-democrats. And the democrats could easily have their primary schedule the same way, if they wanted.

This way, if a state is 60% republican, there is still incentive for them to get out the vote for 61% republican so they can bump up their state in the primary schedule.

Also: Rotate all the states (even the big ones) through an early schedule so that everyone gets access at some point to the front line.

OR

Let each state bid when they want their primary to take place. The earlier the primary, the fewer the delegates they control according to some logarithmic or steep curve formula.

18 posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 9:55:08 AM by Kevmo (We need to get rid of the Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party. ~Duncan Hunter)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962610/posts?page=18#18

Second thing is the order of the primaries should be determined by the percentage of republicans in the last vote. The higher the %pubbie, the sooner the state appears on the primary schedule, with a mix of big & little states and our staunchest republican states get to go FIRST.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1965735/posts?page=862#862

[Califreak]

I just got a call from the RNC.

Normally they try to keep me on the phone for a while, asking me for money, no matter how many times I’ve said I won’t send them a penny.

I told her that they should close the primaries and then maybe I will send money. I had to explain that the open primaries are what gave us the curse of John McCain.

She hung up in a hurry. I wonder if closing the primaries is out of the question?

She was under the impression that only registered republicans can vote in republican primaries.