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All good points. I think that an extended primary could actually help the GOP, though.

The dems definitely benefitted from Obama and Clinton in 2008. They sucked up all the attention and coverage into June. No one cared about McCain or the GOP primary.

In 2012 you could have the reverse. Everyone will be paying attention to and covering the Republicans. All our voters will be excited and interested and involved in the primary and the dem voters won’t have anything to do. No one will be paying attention to Obama. He’ll be overlooked. Unless he does something smart like have Biden announce he’s stepping down in early 2012 and that Hillary will replace him as VP.

But if the GOP is getting all the coverage in winter/spring 2012 I think that will help them in the fall. I think it definitely hurt McCain that he won the nomination on Super Tuesday and had another 4 months of doing nothing. Obama on the other hand was campaigning nonstop in VA, OH, FL, IN, NC, PA, etc... I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he won all those states in the fall. That IN and VA were states the dems did nothing in. All that extra time and money spent campaigning helped him.

Maybe our 2012 candidates doing the same in PA, MI, OH, FL, etc... will lead to a similar result.