right.

that is better and more important then everyone else in America.

by the time the show gets to NewCaFloYorkida all we have left is the big moneyed outfits who are in bed with the Bush Cheney cabal. I'm votin GREEN.

And hey, only 97% of the delegates left!

We should really try to put conventional wisdom man out of our heads.

I hit that point the middle of last week.

To have the first primaries in early January for a general election 11 fucking months away?

8 weeks, start to finish, publicly funded elections, weighted (run-off) primaries in all states. Paper fucking ballots.

"The fucking game is rigged." -Jimmy McNulty

...because you could tell he really wanted to there.

Back in 2004, my state was at last a player! Instead of waiting until the totally irrelevant, regularly scheduled June primary, the Democratic Party, under the leadership of the Governor (who ran for President this cycle, too) held a "caucus" in the first week of February.

And it was great! We got the political ads on the radio and the TV, several visits by candidates, the robo and human phone calls - we were part of the political process. Not so much as the spoiled and coddled New Hampshirites or Iowahoovians, who expect candidates to stop by with coffee and doughnuts at their homes every morning and kiss their butts, but at least we were involved. Our local newspeople attended and wrote articles on candidate rallies, radio and TV stations covered them, and they were unfettered by the k00l-kidz ethos of DC. There was information other than the horse race.

Every state ought to have this opportunity, on a regular basis. Every state. It's time to dump NH and IA, and move to a rotating series of REGIONAL primaries (to make travel costs more reasonable and group similar interests). NH and IA would be forced to take their turns, or get ZERO DELEGATES at the National Democratic Convention. Maybe they could be squeezed out on Congressional earmarks, too.

The time to start is NOW.

We also need to work on the bucks-biased media.

@ Anonymous- "And hey, only 97% of the delegates left!"

-- Yes, and only 39% are super delegates.

See today's War Room: "Twenty-nine Innings of Firewall" and the NYT link in that story

@ Christopher Michael Neill and Zandru

Public financing, verifiable paper trail, and instant runoff, are great ideas that should be implemented without delay, but it won't matter until we can put forth publicly elected candidates. Otherwise it will remain one party insider against another in the general election in perpetuity.

Small, unrepresentative states are what make up this country…or hasn’t ol’ Tommy figured that out yet?

The "Twenty-Nine Innings of Firewall" article I referred to was published Jan-07-2008 not today.

"Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont".

God I cannot STAND that show. Every comment is so naive and moderate and insufferably mundane.

Is everyone in Chicago that obtuse and clueless?

The bespectacled BOMBASTIC IMBECILE is DEFINITELY a (Third-Leg)Member of the MSM, a reporter/commentator/DUNGdit of the MUDDLED STUPID MORONS which call themselves the MAIN STREAM MEDIA!!!!!They SPOUT OFF their CRETINOUS PSYCHOBABBLE and EGOTISTICAL BLATHER praising WORTHLESS SCUM like McPAIN and CRITICIZING the REAL CANDIDATES in a CRIMINAL DASTARDLY SCHEME to PULL THEIR LEGS and HOLD THEM BACK, at the BEHEST of the LAWLESS FASCIST-NAZI, NAZI-FASCISTS of Bushland Uber Allies and the repugnicant-rethug-repub fudge-pachyderms of the G.O.P., GROTESQUE OBSTREPEROUS PEDOPHILE party of Right-Wing-Nuts, which make up all of the HUGE MONSTROUS OCTOPOID CONGLOMERATES that CONTROL the MSM in T.V./Radio Broadcast Media and Newspaper/Magazine/Book/Print Media! So let us TRUE AMERICANS join with Tom Tomorrow's COOL, WISE PENGUIN and TELL THESE SLIMY SEWER RATS and LOATHESOME UNCTUOUS Uriah Heep CREEPS TO SHUT THE HELL UP BEFORE WE SMASH THEIR ROTTEN FACES IN WITH OUR CLENCHED FISTS AND STOMP ON THEIR PIN-HEADS WITH OUR HOB-NAILED BOOTS!!!!!

I salute you, sir, and every fucking word you said.

No, but most are.

They're a plague of idiots so taken with themselves that they drive away anyone seeking intelligent discussion of the upcoming election.

This collection of fools create a position of importance for themselves by constantly imposing upon the relationships the candidates should have directly with the public.

Left, Right, Center, fringe all would be far better served if the Chris Matthews of the world just disappeared forever.

The most outrageous thing about them is few are near the level of educational accomplishment of those they feel they are so qualified to judge and crucify. How many of them were ever to accomplish educationally anything on the level of a law degree, very few.

It's the constant need of the candidates to dumb things down to their level that creates such fertile ground for the delicious out of context quote making that is the lifeblood of their lives.

They are vermin, worthless parasites that ad absolutely no value to the political discourse. Yet like a parasite they have found a way to perpetually lodge themselves in the body politic and sustain themselves perpetually.

Your right. okay.