What would it take to get primaries all on the same day?

[TNDemo]

I really don't like the idea of Iowa and New Hampshire determining who the front runner is. If not all on the same day, then the same week. Impossible?

[shesemsmom]

1. That would be great

I've had dreams of that for many years

[bryant69]

2. Politically impossible I would guess

And it would turn a several week story into a one day story, so the media would be against it too.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[ladjf]

3. It would save time, money and stop the current problem

of selecting the nominee based on the first few primaries.

[emulatorloo]

4. How are the candidates going to campaign nationwide?

It just doesn't seem practical.

This year the serious candidates could all afford to hit Iowa and New Hampshire hard. . .get in the faces of voters, get to know them and fight for their votes.

The exception was Clark, who could not afford to go to Iowa and basically suffered later for it.


ON EDIT: national media? forget about it. . .think about how the media filtered John Kerry - never letting him speak for himself. constantly summarizing and taking his words out of context,

[Jersey Devil]

5. Or at least doing it regionally with significant states included

I for one am pissed that NJ doesn't have its primary until June while the whole process is dominated by two states (Iowa & NH) in which one isn't even a primary in a state that I don't think of as a truly representative Dem state and the other (NH) is in a state that also isn't representative of Dems in general. I don't want to diss NH folks, but anyone who has ever spent any time there (I have vacationed there many times) knows that they have their own, distinct Yankee flavor that you can't find anywhere else.

[No Mandate Here.]

6. I have long advocated four Super Tuesdays

each two weeks apart, and they rotate between sections of the country every two or four years. Divide the country by time zones- so no region will close before the others.

[havocmom]

7. Bad idea. Candidates would not be able to concentrate in an area

Voters would not be able to really watch performance over a period of time/stress. Issues change as events happen. This wouldn't give as good a picture on how candidates stand on broader spectrum of issues/events.

If you don't like the idea of NH picking a front runner, change who the front runner is when they get to your state.

A single primary day would mean even less chance for us to get our candidates know outside of major urban population centers. Since we already win those, it would behoove us to let more red state voters really know our candidates instead of letting the GOP represent them falsely. We really could take the Southwest and Mountain West with just a little more effort.

[AP]

8. A lot of people to get really stupid at the same time and then decide to..

...do that.

If you need to know why it's important to start small and cheap, watch the War Room.

You could never have that sort of one-to-one persuassion where an unknown candidate could build up momentum based on who they are and what they believe in if there was one national primary day.