I had hoped the Clinton dreadnought could be slowed, as I supported Edwards. But in my wildest imagination I never saw such a collapse coming. It is clear Obama has lit fire to voters imagination.

Congratulations to Mr Penn for completely missing the essential voter desires.

Can the media please get over this "fiercely independent" stuff? New Hampshire voters are just as much sheep as everyone else, as evidenced by the fact that they almost always vote for whomever Iowa tells them to vote for. And the rest of the country follows suit.

Anything to not have to make a decision yourself, I guess.

The biggest losers in this horse race are the traveling press corps who impose their friggin' petty opinions on the American electorate, dissing candidates they don't like because of their coiffed hair or imagined shrillness, doing everything possible to American Idolize this most serious presidential election.

There's one caucus under our belts, and the media act as though it's all over except the acceptance speech.

Boy, those press folks must really need self-validation the way they maul viable candidates, then congratulate themselves on their brilliant analyses once they drive the American sheeple into submission by their incessant opinions on who fucked up on one response to one question in one debate on one day, totally ignoring all those other days in a candidate's life.

It's effin' depressing.

If the Iowa and New Hampshire voters overwhelmingly picked the candidate YOU prefer, would you be calling them sheep?

No, then it would be the Obama supporters calling YOU sheep, and you would be saying "we have a mandate on our side."

BAAAAAH!!!!

Bill Clinton didn't win Iowa or New Hampshire in '92.

that I could be more despairing regarding the "coverage" that our corporate owned and sponsored media hacks provide - until I started to get a load of the substandard coverage that Salon and other so-called progressive/liberal non MSM outlets have been providing. Honestly, we are acting as though the actions of SOME of the people in two dinky little states should dictate the choices of all others. I used to ask my husband, after the teams had been selected for the World Series, who would win. And he would always reply: "I don't know. That's why they play the game."

I am a precinct chair for my local Democratic Committee, and I am seriously considering resigning my position because I do not wish to be obligated to work in a campaign that is already lost. If the Democrats aren't willing to enfranchise the voters in all of the 50 states, then all hope is lost. The DNC and the RNC want the fucking money and they want the fucking labor of people in my state, but they don't want to actually come here and compete for our votes.

I don't expect better from our infotainmedia. I do expect better from Salon. And Anon, no, I wouldn't be happy if my guy had come in first in Iowa. It would just make him a target sooner rather than later of our corporate owned media. Is it too much to ask that Salon not join the herd in its rush to judgment? Why can't Salon get ahead of the herd - say by going to Michigan, the first really important state to have a primary? Maybe Salon could write some "what if" columns. You know, like "what if" our first primaries were in states such as MI, OH, or Penn - would we then have a serious manufacturing policy?

By the way, the four "important" states of SC, IA, NH, and NV have six Repub Senators and two Democratic Senators; the split in the House is a bit better at eight each. No wonder we getting fucked over the White House. I'd love to see a candidate say, "Screw SC, IA, NH, and NV. It is wrong to allow a small and unrepresentative cohort to dictate the choices of the other states. I'm going to Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania." For the record, I do not live (and have never lived) in Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania.

It's an overstatement to say that New Hampshire always follows Iowa's lead:

In 1984, Iowa went for Mondale; New Hampshire went for Gary Hart.

In 1988, Iowa went for Dick Gephardt; New Hampshire went for Dukakis.

In 1992, Iowa went for Tom Harkin; New Hampshire went for Paul Tsongas.

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1404

I used to have a friend who would accuse everyone who politically disagreed with him of being a dupe of the "corporate news media." That was it - it was supposed to put an end to the discussion, because your opinion was immediately dismissed as that of one who had been brainwashed. The funny thing is, for the last couple of weeks I have been reading posts which have complained that Hillary Clinton was the front-runner because all the "sheeple" had been brainwashed by the corporate media. Apparently the only leading candidate one is allowed to support without being called a sheep or dupe is John Edwards.

but I agree that candidates should compete in all states, and that the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire should be diminished by having groups of states have primaries on the same day, and rotating the first day to various regions of the country.

I think Salon was correct in pointing out this silly mistake by Mark Penn. He's turning out to not be the legend in his own mind that he thinks he is. This is further evidence of that.

And what's the point of speculating about what would happen if, say, California were first on the schedule? It's not, and there are no concrete plans for making it so. Speculating about something that might happen in the future can be interesting, but when we have an actual primary happening tomorrow, it doesn't seem strange that Salon is, in fact, focusing on that.

I do not understand your post. I did not refer to anyone has sheep or dupes. My point is that the MSM is not the friend of the Democratic Party or of progressive values. They get paid to destroy strong Democratic candidates, and they do their jobs well.

In addition, it is unfair to allow a handful of people in a few small states to dictate to the rest of the country who should be the nominee of the parties. (And the DNC and the RNC are both complicit in this problem.) Our infotainmedia will not ask the hard questions of either candidates or political parties, and most of them are dumb as posts. I want better from non-traditional media such as Salon.