Repairing our election system

Repairing our election system.
By Allen Marino
With all the turmoil we have faced since the election of President Obama, I was thinking how different things would have turned out if John McCain would have won.
The big turning point in the race was at the end when the economic bubble burst. I could speculate here on what caused it, but books are already being written about it. The big question is who popped the bubble at just the right time? Who benefited most from the crisis? The crisis showed that Obama was better able to handle economic issues, or so we were told. Who had enough money and clout to push the financial industry off the cliff? I personally believe Soros was behind it.
Timing was very important to the race. They needed something to take the spotlight off of Sarah Palin, and put it back on the issues that would make Obama look good. Even though the Republicans were trying to alert us to the housing bubble brewing at Fannie and Freddie, it was still President Bush who the media blamed for it.
I will admit that I was screaming for Bush to not pass the first stimulus bill. The economy would have been better of in the long run if it was allowed to correct itself. Instead you had the government picking winners and losers, allowing some firms to lose everything because they didn’t have the right connections or had not donated to the right campaigns. The line between a donation and a shake down for protection has been missing for some time now.
One of the first things Obama did when taking over, after calling the Muslims to promise he was on their side, was to close Gitmo. The fact that it is still open should be overlooked. I don’t think McCain would have ordered the base closed, he would have outlawed our use of “extensive interrogation methods”.
I believe Obama’s first big legislative push was Cap-n-trade. We can be thankful they backed off of that one, at least for now.
McCain would have probably pushed for amnesty, and the media would have howled. Even when a Republican is doing what the liberals want, the fact that it comes from the right makes it wrong.
We have been watching the present administration mishandle the BP oil spill for months now. How would the press be reacting if McCain were in charge and doing the same thing? We would be seeing daily reports on how many birds have been killed, how they failed in every thing they try to do, how we should never allow a Republican near the White House again.
How strangely silent they are with Obama the Magnificent in charge.
When looking at how bad our choices were, we have to ask how we can prevent having the good conservative candidates from being eliminated in the primary process. By the time the people of Texas get to vote in a primary, the good people have been eliminated, we can chose between Democrat & Republican.
The game is fixed to give us progressives. If the game is fixed, how do we fix the game? We change the rules.
I’ve been calling for a change in the way primaries are run. Why should Iowa & New Hampshire get to chose between the best candidates?
We should break primaries up into four primaries by time zone. The first primary is the first Tuesday in April which in the case of 2012 would be April 3rd. Either we can change which zone goes first every four years or we set it in stone that the Eastern zone goes first. Six weeks later being in this case May 15<SUP>th</SUP>, we have the second regional primary. We continue this way going across the country. Hawaii and Alaska vote with the West. I know some states straddle across two time zones; they can decide which zone they want to be in, probably going with where most of the state is located.
This would leave us with the general race or the last push being 12 weeks, in which to make the final decision. Considering they now start their campaign right after the midterm election, this would cut the price of running down to size.
If any state wants’ to hold something earlier, they can hold a straw poll, but it cannot be funded by the National Parties, and are not binding on the candidates.
I have heard some official not wanting to hold their primaries earlier because its hard for the state and local candidates to get their message out. This system would get the election cycle away from the Christmas holiday season; you don’t have to start campaigning until after the first of the year. This should also save everyone some money.