Roll this around in the ole cranium for a spell: If you can't win in IOWA and NEW HAMPSHIRE what chance do you stand of winning the whole thing?
I must admit it is so easy to game both states but lets face it if you can be rolled here what chance do you stand elsewhere? Sad but true. Should we tighten up the primary process here and the voter ID system? Absolutely. The only nice thing about NH is that you can get to meet a whole bunch of candidates if you want.
Yes. The modified open primary here sucks. Time to make it a closed primary.
And we've seen what people who win in NH and Iowa do in the general election. Zip point shit. Remember, since 1988, we've had:
1988--George H.W. Bush (Dole 2nd.)
1996--Pat Buchanan (Dole 2nd.) Between the two of them they barely got 50 percent of the vote.
2000--McCain (Bush lost by nearly 20 points.)
2008--McCain (Romney 2nd.)
2012--Romney (Paul 2nd, who also finished 2nd in the Democrat primary.)
Now while I'll grant you this has almost as much to do with the crappy choice of candidates as it does with the almost Libertarian makeup of this state. I still believe that there should be a "rotation" of primaries so that ALL states are important in different election cycles. Imagine if a solid conservative candidate gains some traction in a "first in the nation" Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming, etc, primary, and so forth.
