I hate the horse race

The horse race theme of the presidential candidate coverage reminds me of the guest stars on The Love Boat or the contestants on TattleTales. It's about being famous for being famous. (Seriously, what did Dick Gautier do for a living?) Or, in this case, being in the lead because you've been in the lead. The news coverage is all so self-fulfilling it is frightening.

Even McCain pollster Bill McInturff laments the vicious cycle of the poll-driven nomination process, “Polling affects press coverage, which affects your name recognition, which affects polling.” Which affects voting. When people hear "current front-runner" tacked on to every mention of a candidate's name, it can heavily influence voters to pick the horse who seems to have the best chance of winning.

I'm still convinced this dynamic accounted for Bush winning the GOP nomination in 2000. He was one of the least substantive candidates in the field (he couldn't pick out many countries on a map) but he had constant early press coverage (and the front-runner label) for his gigantic fundraising results as far back as 1998. That gave him a tremendous advantage going into the final year.

I find it ludicrous that the news media treats each individual state as if it's make or break when only two states have even voted! Someone wins Iowa and they are trumpeted as the frontrunner: "Smith Takes the Lead!" Then the same person loses New Hampshire and the headlines scream "Smith Campaign Reeling! Will It Survive?" It's only two states! There are 48 more to go!

I believe there should be a nationwide primary. It would put an end to all the false do-or-die drama and give every candidate a chance to receive votes in every state. This is also important to me because I live in Alabama and our turn comes so late that I can't recall ever having voted in any primary where the nominee hadn't already been decided. At the very least, my preferred candidate as always out of the race by that point.

It would also spare us watching the candidates going from state to state and lying about everything they're going to do just for that state - as if it were their first priority.

Yes, I'm talking to you, Mitt.