Sweetpea’s Garden

I know I am not alone when I say that I am just over the Democratic primary process — so, so over it. I don’t know if I can stand to hear another breakdown of the numbers of delegates, superdelegates, and that third kind of extra-special, kinda-secret delegates needed for victory in my party’s arcane nominating system. And honestly, I might cry if I hear one more time that now, unexpectedly, state X matters. It’s not just Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Indiana — I started hearing this back in February, when much to our surprise, the DC, Maryland, and Virginia “Potomac Primary” suddenly rose to relevancy.

This, actually, is a huge part of why I’m just done with the whole thing. Call me naive and idealistic, but I think all the states should matter — and as far as I can tell, the party leadership in most states agree. What else could explain the way states tripped over themselves to bump their primaries earlier and earlier in the year? (Leading, of course, to the current ruckus about seating the Michigan and Florida delegations at the convention.) Obviously, the plan to front-load the primaries neither made the early votes more important nor made selecting a candidate any faster.

Just as an aside, I don’t think the primary problem is exclusive to the Democrats, though we’re the ones, obviously, making news right now. The Republicans have a similarly strange calendar, but their winner-take-all methodology at least kept their primaries from being a months-long ordeal. I doubt, though, that supporters of Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, or others of the original cast of thousands — especially in the states that voted late — find it much more satisfactory.

I don’t know what the solution is. A national primary day seems like a good idea to me, but I don’t know that the states would go for it. After all, the whole primary system is at the ugly crossroads of states’ rights and national party politics. It seems to me that something must change, since the current methodology is so flawed.

But of course, it’s not just the process that has me worn out. I’m not especially crazy about either of the candidates and watching them tear each other down day after day on issues where, fundamentally, they agree, is exhausting. And, oh, I dunno… incredibly detrimental to our chances in November.

Sigh.

(And yes, I realize that the primary process is not especially new; I think the current Democratic disaster has served to highlight for me some problems inherent in the current system.)

“Never thought I’d miss Nixon.”

Well, it has been almost another week. Who knew Sweetpea and I would both get swamped at the same time! (Although I am definitely less-swamped than she is.)

It is finally Texas’s turn to participate in the election frenzy that has engulfed 2008. Watching TV here finally feels like watching TV in DC - political ads all the time, including a few not paid for by the candidates themselves. I guess that is the only difference with DC - PAC ads abound, which I do not miss!

Should be interesting to see what happens here, if only because Texas has open primaries, so lots of Republicans are planning to vote in the Democratic primary in the hopes of having some effect on the final selection of candidate. And while I understand this sentiment (I did it when I lived in Virginia) the intent behind it seems less than savory - I’ve heard lots of people saying they are voting for Hillary because she will be easier for McCain to defeat. And that just doesn’t sit right with me. When I crossed parties in VA, I wasn’t thrilled with the presumptive Democratic candidate, and was supporting the one Republican candidate that I thought I could live with at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (My choice lost.)

So I will be interested to see where Texas comes out next Tuesday. And at the same time, I just can’t wait for November so we can stop all the madness (at least temporarily). Cause it won’t stop once we have a Democratic candidate. But maybe, just maybe, we can keep this election out of the gutter? I really could give a crap about theme tearing each other to shreds. I want to know what they are going to do for our country, our infrastructure, our schools, etc. Which makes me wonder - garden friends - what issues really do matter to us? Or don’t matter at all, as the case may be. I’d be curious to know.

BTW, isn’t Ron Paul running for President? I just saw a re-elect Ron Paul to Congress ad…Can you run for election for two posts concurrently? That seems beyond dumb!