According to the news, if either Romney or Edwards doesn’t do well in NH they might be out of the race.  Out of the race?  Talk about the tail wagging the dog.  Two very small states have the power to decide who the finalists are going to be. What happened to all the campaigning Edwards has done; the money his campaign has spent and the debates he has participated in?  The same goes for Romney.  A couple of days ago Edwards was neck to neck with Clinton and Obama and Romney was the Republican front runner. I wouldn’t vote for Edwards if he were the only candidate running but I would at least like to be able to make that choice.  This archaic primary system needs to be scrapped and replaced with a national primary that is held on the same day for all the states the same way the general election is held. All the candidates should be listed on the national primary ballot and let the American voters decide who should be the finalists.

Bill Press said the same thing in article I recently read.

Bizarre indeed same goes for the antiquated electoral college. Don't believe any other democracy has the same system. Other than providing an Economic boost to Iowa and NH, what does it do? Neither represents the country as whole one iota!

-- Modified on 1/7/2008 1:00:06 PM

"According to the news, if either Romney or Edwards doesn’t do well in NH they might be out of the race."


 75 % of this country is so easily swayed by Media lies it amazes me..The primaries are done this way because Politicians find it much easier to get the votes of the easily led.Unfortunately for ms.clinton it is backfiring on her...BUT she still has hope..
 By the way there is no Red State Blue State divisions that the ignorant believe in just because the Media told their puppets so ....

 Perfect example is Va. 51% to 49% constitutes what color??  Purple in my opinion .. But not according to the minions

A national primary would allow a lot of lesser known candidates a chance run and be heard.  There would have to be a system to qualify a candidate to be on the ballot in each state.  Usually a candidate would have to have a certain amount of signatures to be on the ballot. Candidates like Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, the Libertarian candidate etc. could all be on the ballot if they gathered enough signatures.  The national primary would determine who the finalists would be and they would be the only ones campaigning for the White House.  There would be no spoiler candidates.  When Ralph Nader ran against GWB he siphoned off a substantial number of votes that would have otherwise gone to Gore.  Most of the voters who voted for Nader in the final election were Democrats.  With a national primary a candidate like Nader could get his message out and voters could vote for him and still vote for the winnable candidate in the general election.  If candidates like Nader received a substantial percentage of the vote but not enough to qualify for the general election then his message would be heard loud and clear.  The people and the elected officials would have a much better idea about how the electorate really feels about issues. Candidates of the same party wouldn’t be tearing each other apart like they are now with the current primary system.

There would be no need for the Electoral College.  If a candidate won 49% of the votes in a state and his opponent won 51% the entire state wouldn’t go to the candidate who won 51%.  When Reagan beat Carter it was called the biggest landslide in history.  Carter only won one state, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.  However, Reagan barely won the popular vote in several states.  If you compare the popular vote, Reagan still won but not by the landslide like he did in the Electoral College. Maybe if we had a logical, sensible and equitable voting system more people would have faith in the system and go to the polls. Logic

Agreed.

I suggest coming up with filing fee filing fee, establish a set of qualification criteria and if the candidate don't qualify, forfeits the filing fee.

Would it have any impact on campaign contributions and special interest groups?

After all, the candidates have to get your votes, don't they?