02-16-2012, 06:41 PM
So taking the voting public out of the equation completely is the answer? I don't get that at all. We already have enough "smoke filled rooms" running the show, and over the past year the situation has gotten significantly worse. They are called super PACs. We don't have "party bosses" any longer, we have sugar daddies.
I've personally participated in the primary system, and it works. The challenges now are not party bosses calling the shots, it's the role of the media and of money.
The people who vote in the primary are the best informed, most involved, and most invested. Had "smoke filled rooms" determined the Democratic nominee in '08, it would have been Hillary Clinton. And I don't think she would have defeated McCain Palin, her negatives were above 50% and presidential candidates in the US don't win under those conditions, regardless of the intensity of their fan base.
And now the "smoke filled rooms" want to nominate Romney, and he may not be who the people of that party want. At least one caucus already appears to have been manipulated by the party powers that be (Maine.) We don't know who actually won that, and may never.
Brokered conventions, where the party machine picks the candidates, are perceived very negatively by the public and a sign that the party is doomed to lose in the general. I really don't think people want to go back to that.
And what are polls? Polls are the voice of the people. That voice is important in a democracy. Our current president actually tries to listen to that voice, I think that's a good thing. The best leaders are servants of the people.
I've personally participated in the primary system, and it works. The challenges now are not party bosses calling the shots, it's the role of the media and of money.
The people who vote in the primary are the best informed, most involved, and most invested. Had "smoke filled rooms" determined the Democratic nominee in '08, it would have been Hillary Clinton. And I don't think she would have defeated McCain Palin, her negatives were above 50% and presidential candidates in the US don't win under those conditions, regardless of the intensity of their fan base.
And now the "smoke filled rooms" want to nominate Romney, and he may not be who the people of that party want. At least one caucus already appears to have been manipulated by the party powers that be (Maine.) We don't know who actually won that, and may never.
Brokered conventions, where the party machine picks the candidates, are perceived very negatively by the public and a sign that the party is doomed to lose in the general. I really don't think people want to go back to that.
And what are polls? Polls are the voice of the people. That voice is important in a democracy. Our current president actually tries to listen to that voice, I think that's a good thing. The best leaders are servants of the people.