As you may remember, we used to select candidates in smoke-filled rooms where mysterious men smoking cigars looked at candidates and picked one. No, it was not the democratic system, but those rooms picked pretty good candidates, or at least the most electable.
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Well, no one smokes anymore, but it might be good to give the mysterious men and women “vaping” a shot at picking the candidates. What we are seeing this year is that primaries stink and the Democrats, who started this mess in 1972 with McGovern, may want to reconsider their ways.
Let’s check this from Hugh Hewitt:
El-Sayed eked out a win in the primary, but mainstream Republican Mike Rogers, who served 14 years in the House of Representatives, including a term as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, quickly established himself as a normal, pro-American Michigander with a love of football, Mackinac Island and Ford trucks — all of which El-Sayed had disparaged. Meanwhile, El-Sayed tried without effect to delete radical Hasan Piker from his bio, even though everyone in Michigan had seen Piker carry El-Sayed over the primary’s finish line and campaign with the self-proclaimed America-hater on the last day of the primary campaign. “Advantage Rogers,” especially as early absentee voting begins in Michigan next week.
Michigan is one example. In Texas, there is James “I misspoke about everything I said” Talarico. In Maine, the effort to deny Senator Collins another term has turned into a travesty for the party. In Minnesota, the land of Walz, Lt. Governor Flanagan, the female version of our Talarico, is now in a dead heat with a newcomer who talks common sense, such as “men and women should not compete in sports.” In New Hampshire, Rep. Chris Pappas was supposed to breeze to victory, but a common-sense Sununu has appeared on the way to election day.
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It’s candidates like the aforementioned that led Secretary Robert Kennedy to say that his father and uncle would not recognize the current Democrat Party. All these choices raise several questions about the utility of a primary system that favors a small group of extremists who win primaries and then run into a moderate electorate on election day.
I’ve never been a fan of the current primary system because it puts ideology over electability. The GOP made a similar mistake in 2022 in Arizona and elsewhere. The objective of the primary system is to nominate winners, not ideologues.
Maybe we should go back to the old days with vape rather than smoke. Keep a few primaries to test the candidates in front of the voters, but the final choice should be made by people who know what they are doing. The “smoke-filled” rooms gave us some pretty good presidents over the years. Also, it would make the conventions more interesting if delegates had to compromise to find the best choice. That’s how we got Lincoln in the third ballot back in 1860.
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Kill the primaries now.
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