Who schedules the primaries so this one is early, that one is latter? Who punishes states by stripping them of their delegates for trying to move their caucus/primary up to an earlier date? Who decides if it is a primary or a caucus? Who decided if a primary, in an early state, is open and that one is closed? Who decides to hype the media coverage of say a certain Candide squeaking out a win in state A and ignoring him getting blown by double digits in State B? How is it that the media spends 90% more time talking about Candidate A, who finished 4th in Iowa then they do talking about Candidate B who pulled a surprising 3 place finish? Why do party politicians line up, like good little whores, to all endorse a specific candidate? Who decides the timing of those endorsements to make sure they have maximum impact on the voter’s?
The process is manipulated. It just done in such a way most of you never notice.
This habit of adopting contempt without knowing is a serious weakness in Americans. We are all so sure that everything works exactly as our teachers and or our TVs tell us. No it does not.
Powerful people are powerful mainly because they know how to make their own luck. Powerful people try to keep that power. It not some evil plot where the faceless evil ones sit around and pick who will win this or that election. But by controlling the scheduling and structure of things the connected make an outcome more likely.
That one of the reasons nothing ever changes. People automatically dismiss this sort of information as “kooky”. The author does have some valid points. There is some nuttiness to this article sure, but there is some validity to the points being made.
The Primaries are rigged. That doesn’t mean they are not honest competitions but that they are structured and gamed as much as possible so that the Party Chiefs, not us peons, pick the candidate.
This is profoundly upsetting to me, because we should have a system where sometimes the outsider can win. Our founders definitely did not want an oligarchy. But they did not envision 50 states and a wacky "primary season."
I suppose it would take a constitutional amendment to make all federal primaries on the same day, so that would never happen. What else would help?
I was unclear.
My sarcasm was intended only for the phrase “Mission accomplished” with regard to McCain securing the nomination.
Like “McCain wins. YAY! /hvy sarc “
Yours is a thoughtful post I’d like to reply to, but I’m short on time right.
We caucas in a few hours and I have other things to tend to first...
bump for later
“Who schedules the primaries so this one is early, that one is latter?”
States and state parties.
If it’s a primary, the state sets the date. If it’s a party run primary ala South Carolina, I believe the state party sets the date. Cauci are organized by the state party.
Both the RNC the DNC did not not want any primaries or cauci to occur before Feb 5. Exceptions were made for Iowa and New Hampshire and a couple other states.
“Who punishes states by stripping them of their delegates for trying to move their caucus/primary up to an earlier date? Who decides if it is a primary or a caucus? Who decided if a primary, in an early state, is open and that one is closed? “
Surf around this site:
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/
It does a pretty good job of answering your questions. As near as I can tell, they’re pretty accurate and non-biased.
“Who decides to hype the media coverage of say a certain Candide squeaking out a win in state A and ignoring him getting blown by double digits in State B?”
The media, both dinosaur and new.
“How is it that the media spends 90% more time talking about Candidate A, who finished 4th in Iowa then they do talking about Candidate B who pulled a surprising 3 place finish?”
Unprofessional journalism?
“Why do party politicians line up, like good little whores, to all endorse a specific candidate?”
This is a rhetorical question, right?
“Who decides the timing of those endorsements to make sure they have maximum impact on the voter’s?”
In a well-run campaign, it’s whoever’s runnin’ the show.
“The Primaries are rigged. That doesn’t mean they are not honest competitions but that they are structured and gamed as much as possible so that the Party Chiefs, not us peons, pick the candidate.”
I’m not sure I agree.
McCain was greatly helped by Huckabee and Thompson being in the race...
McCain’s campaign was greatly helped by Rudy’s exit from the race 6 days before Super Tuesday...
McCain was greatly helped by New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut’s Winner-Take-All rules...
I don’t have an all encompassing theory on how we ended up with McCain.
It kinda reminds me of how World War I started.
Sorry I don’t have any better answers for you.
—Checkers