This is bad. You know, I feel if Iowa and New Hampshire are STILL allowed to go first in the primary process. And NH is STILL allowed to let anybody vote in the primary regardless of party, Mitt may well have a solid chance of being the front-runner out of the gate.
What law says these states have to vote first? Is there one? McCain didn’t even carry Iowa or NH ultimately. And NH was primarily responsible for fueling his comeback, right? Can’t we work to stop this now?
Can the GOP reject delegates from states with “open” primaries? The argument that it will upset them doesn’t wash when you see that the libs were still able to carry MI and FL this year after screwing around with their delegates.
Can the GOP have somebody else vote first? Like, for example, the states that won by the “reddest” margin this year? Maybe it could provide some good incentive for local grass-roots organizers. States that have the strongest showing get the distinction of being the first in the process.
In my opinion, restructuring our primaries should be the first thing we go after if we want to rebuild the right way. I’m not an expert. Maybe I’m way off base. But if you agree, how do we get this done? Where do we start?
Is it already too late for 2012?
Good question. Please ping me on any answer. I'd love to put money toward a coordinated effort to make this happen. Until we restructure the primaries, we're screwed, even when/if the majority of Republicans reject Romney as passionately as we rejected McCain in the primaries. The majority of Republican votes LITERALLY don't matter or count in our own primaries, and that's a sure path to failure -- as we just witnessed on Nov. 4.