“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
My BA is in History. That is a remarkably apt comparison.