The 2008 "Screw You, Iowa Caucus" Thread

mykevermin

mykevermin

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Is anyone else dismayed by the disproportionate electoral power given to Iowa and New Hampshire during presidential election years? That they get first dibs at presidential candidates, tons of reporters, visits, stumps, etc - and by the time they get to your state, or "Super Tuesday," it's already over and totally irrelevant.

I can't stand that two states worth of voters get the opportunity to start the momentum every four years - not the *idea* of it, but the fact that every time it's the same two goddamned states. Iowa matters; New Hampshire matters. Your state? Not so much.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Is anyone else dismayed by the disproportionate electoral power given to Iowa and New Hampshire during presidential election years? That they get first dibs at presidential candidates, tons of reporters, visits, stumps, etc - and by the time they get to your state, or "Super Tuesday," it's already over and totally irrelevant.

I can't stand that two states worth of voters get the opportunity to start the momentum every four years - not the *idea* of it, but the fact that every time it's the same two goddamned states. Iowa matters; New Hampshire matters. Your state? Not so much.[/quote]

I agree (unless Ron Paul gets the momentum :lol: )
 
every primary should be on the same day, so it doesnt effect the others. Every state would get a share of the primary treatment
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']every primary should be on the same day, so it doesnt effect the others. Every state would get a share of the primary treatment[/quote]

Agreed.

~HotShotX
 
yeah, i dont like it either, but it doesnt always set the trend. clinton lost iowa and new hampshire, bush was crushed in new hampshire in 2000, bush sr and reagan also lost in iowa before eventually becoming president, so hey. plus you never know when someone will pull something like the dean scream and just crash & burn.
 
IA and NH only have power because of the sheep in the media and the electorate. The delegates from those two states are no more valuable at the conventions than the delegates from any other states. (But I agree with others here that they all should be on the same day, or maybe have more Super Tuesdays--say 5 total, with 10 states each day for each of those mini-primaries, but make them regional so we don't have alot of wasted money for travel.)
 
On the one hand, staggering the primaries makes them more dramatic.

On the other hand, having them all at once makes it a bit more fair.

I like the idea of switching which states have the first in the nation primary/caucus and cycling through them from there. It would be even more interesting if the Democrats and Republicans chose a different state-by-state cycle. I also like the idea of making it a more conservative and more liberal leaning state as the first 2 primaries, thereby making it less one sided as to who gets the momentum early on.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Welcome to "every Canadian province west of Ontario", Myke.[/QUOTE]

Not last election. :bomb:
 
Rotating would be a good in-between solution. Seriously, though, why the fuck do Iowa and New Hampshire get to be first? They're fucking tiny, really meaningless states. If anybody has to be first, it should be California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, etc.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Hey, blame Quebec, man.[/QUOTE]

Better CPC then BQ, but still not my choice.
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']Either have all the primaries on the same day, or get rid of the electoral college system.[/QUOTE]

The electoral college and the primaries are two completely unrelated things. One is how the nation chooses a president, while the other is how a party chooses its nominee.
 
[quote name='evanft']The electoral college and the primaries are two completely unrelated things. One is how the nation chooses a president, while the other is how a party chooses its nominee.[/QUOTE]
Well the whole delegate system is most certainly modeled after the same idea as the electoral college.
 
This is going to be chaotic no matter what system you're using. Considering 40% of the GOP voters flipped candidates in the past month I'm going to take a stab and say every primary will count.
 
So, does anyone here from Iowa plan on attending? If so, who are you voting for?

I'll be watching on CNN.
 
Live free or die.

Iowa is easily the worst state I've ever had the displeasure of working in. I'd sooner have my gums scraped than go back to Iowa.
 
I think the entire electoral process (not the Presidents of the United States of America album, which is fuckin fantastic by the way) is totally fucked. It has gotten too long and drawn out.

The debates are okay at best, but I think a roundtable settign where they just discussed issues instead of being fed softballs would be much more probative.

The time spent campaignign should be cut in half. SOme of the candidates average about 50-60 fundraisers a month. How the fuck can they be doing thier jobs (senate, house, trial lawyers, whatever) for the year (or two?) they're campaigning. Its ridiculous and gotten alot worse this year.
 
[quote name='pittpizza']the Presidents of the United States of America album, which is fuckin fantastic by the way[/quote]There's a kitty at my foot. And I want to touch it.
 
[quote name='pittpizza']I think the entire electoral process (not the Presidents of the United States of America album, which is fuckin fantastic by the way) [/QUOTE]
What?

There's a Presidents album entitled "Electoral Process"? Or "The Entire Electoral Process"?

Was this before or after Love Everybody?
 
I am apologizing in advance.
But I know nothing when it comes to politics. Seriously.

So what's this all about? Does this mean that our next president will be Obama or Huckabee??
I'm not looking for a lecture, just a brief description of what this means.
Thanks in advance :D
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']What?

There's a Presidents album entitled "Electoral Process"? Or "The Entire Electoral Process"?

Was this before or after Love Everybody?[/QUOTE]


To clarify about the band, The Presidents of the United States of America (hereinafter "PUSA") put out an album that I burned from my friend, then uploaded to Itunes and burned onto my ipod and it shows up as "Electoral process" It is a really bad ass album.

I tried to find it but was getting all sorts of political results so googled my fav song on the album (well one of em, Mach 5). ANyway it says the album is named: "II". So I have no idea what the fuck the name of the album is but I guess it is II. Here is a link: http://www.presidentsrock.com/albums/album.php?title=II

Its pretty damn old too, so maybe the name changed from or to "II" from or to "Electoral Process"

I love PUSA btw. It takes me back. Whatever the hell its called, its a great album.

Liboo I consider myself a fairly political creature and I am not really sure what a cuacus is for. It is basically part of the nomination process, whereby people just go to show their support for a candidate. They can be held anywhere, gymnasiums, livnig rooms, conventions centers, etc.. Only members of a party can attend (dems can only go to dem caucus'). It is basically another stop on a long drawn out trail to hte presidency that helps the parties identify who will win thier party's ticket. It also is an early indicator of the strength or weakness of certain candidates. I would be intersted in seeing some data on the % of people who win early caucuses (plural cauci?? that would be cool) that actually go on to win the presidency.
 
[quote name='lilboo']I am apologizing in advance.
But I know nothing when it comes to politics. Seriously.

So what's this all about? Does this mean that our next president will be Obama or Huckabee??
I'm not looking for a lecture, just a brief description of what this means.
Thanks in advance :D[/quote]


The caucuses are where each state gets to vote on who they want to represent them in the presidential race. So, for Iowa, the democrats in Iowa wants want Obama. The republicans want Huckabee. New Hampshire is on Tues and more than likely (I don't know) your state's caucuses will be on Feb 6th. Whoever leads at the end of all the caucuses will go on to run for president. Now, as of now, it does look like Obama and Huckabee, but it still depends. on the democratic side Edwards and Hilary are still very much in the race, but on the republican side Huckabee probably does have it. Only two real contenders against him would be Ron Paul and Mit Romney and neither of them are really close.
 
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