Do We Really Need Primaries, In Light Of The "Overwhelming" Lead Of The "Top Tier" Candidates?

[Dinger]

If your answer is yes, what role would they play in the 2008 election?
If your answer is no, please explain.
If you don't want to elaborate, just vote:)

[hatrack]

1. Are you kidding? Let's just have Tim Russert, Sean Hannity & Howard Fineman decide for us

Just THINK of the time and money we'd all save.

[Dinger]

2. My Point Exactly (nt)

[Totally Committed]

13. How about Carville and his K-Street buddies in those famous

"smoke-filled rooms" he so longs to see again? If we let them decide for us, we know we'll get a candidate that can't win. Count on it. Their track record is about 1000%.

TC

ETA:

James Carville whined to the New Republic about the openness of this month's race for DNC chairmanship:

I think it's pathetic....We're weak, disorganized, flopping around.... Somebody should have fixed this damn thing in November. I wish someone would have taken charge and three or four people would have gotten together in a smoke-filled room.... They're not running for president! They are running for party chair. This is supposed to be a rigged deal. You think the Republicans would do it this way?

http://www.nicklewis.org/politics/democrats/james-carville-this-is-supposed-to-be-a-rigged-deal


He also said this during the 2004 primaries:

"... I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.”

www.alittlemoretotheright.com/blog/?cat=78

[whistle]

3. Polls are not the will of the party voters, sorry but the primaries are

...necessary for the Democratic party. The republicans probably don't need them as their corporate machine really decides, but we democrats do.

[Dinger]

4. I Agree, And I Voted "Yes" (nt)

[DemBones DemBones]

9. So true. nt

[tammywammy]

10. Agreed

[SheilaT]

5. The primaries ultimately

decide who the candidate actually is. What are you suggesting instead?

[Dinger]

16. I'm Not Suggesting Anything. When I Wrote This Poll,

I was actually expressing my frustration with certain candidates being "shoved down my throat."
I wish we could have real primaries, where EVERYBODY can vote (no exceptions, just that they have to be a U.S. citizen), no polls (even though I like them), just an election.

[NoPasaran]

6. I would prefer the old smoke-filled room system

[Totally Committed]

14. Depends on who's in that room, and what kind of smoke it is...

;)

TC

[natrat]

7. i expect this very question to be raised on msnbc and the other whore networks

[DemBones DemBones]

8. We need primaries and we need the media to shut the fuck up.

I'm sick of them pimping for some candidates, ignoring others, when no one has cast a vote yet. I'm not so sure the poll results are legitimate but it's natural for people to name the people they've heard of if they don't really follow politics and get called for a poll. Everybody has heard of Hillary Clinton. (Except, of course, for the people who don't know who the president is now or that we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.) Ditto Rudy Giuliani ("America's Mayor") :puke: and John Edwards and John McCain because they've run before.

Who named Rudy "America's Mayor," does anyone know? A Tweety Bird?

[LibDemAlways]

12. The media and their repuke masters want

Dems to believe that Hillary is inevitable. Why else would they have turned off the slime machine and touted every self-fulfilling poll that shows her ahead?

They are salivating over a Hillary nomination, and anxiously looking forward to unveiling a whole host of new Clinton scandals they've been quietly concocting behind the scenes.

The one huge fly in their ointment is for Gore, certainly the most formidable potential candidate, to get into the race. That would really screw up their plans.

[DemBones DemBones]

17. But while saying that Hillary Clinton will inevitably be the nominee,

they're also tearing her down. Tweety and Fucker are always going on about how the "intelligent women" they know or the "young women" they know can't stand Hillary. I guess they think women are stupid enough to believe them and think they should be like "all those other women" and hate Hillary.

I personally don't want Hillary to win -- or Obama or Edwards -- but I think this supposed anti-Hillary sentiment among women is imaginary. I've always thought she would be a good president as far as competence and intelligence goes and if she hadn't supported Bush so much, I'd be more positive toward her. But the same is true for Obama and Edwards, has nothing to do with Clinton's sex. Most women, myself included, hope to see a woman president in our lifetimes.

[MadHound]

11. You never know what might happen during the primaries

Clinton and McGovern are but two examples of candidates who won the nomination, despite the predictions and pushing of the "conventional wisdom."

God I hope the conventional wisdom is proven wrong again this time.

[calteacherguy]

15. Of course. They need to be heard. 2 candidates (Obama and Clinton) still have a chance

and if someone else should declare, all bets are off.