What happened to the early birds?

Posted by: K.D. Hastings on April 30, 2008 Hot Issues •

For those of us who delight in the down-and-dirty of presidential politics, let’s take a moment and reflect on what was the news de jour seven months ago.

While there were many more candidates in the race, each of them very confident they would be the one sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office next January, there was another scramble going on—the rush among states to have earlier-than-normal primary elections.

These states that jostled for places at the front of the line didn’t want to miss all the media attention. They didn’t want to be after-thoughts. Yet with most of the primaries squeezed together on just a few Tuesdays in late winter, that is exactly what happened.

Now several months after that lemming-like rush to the leading edge of the calendar year, few can name all of the states that held primaries on Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday of February. Yet most Americans, even those not politically inclined, can name the state** that held a primary last week and one of the states*** that will hold its primary next week (May 6).

Nebraska and West Virginia (D) citizens weigh in on May 13 and Kentuckians and Oregonians on the 20th. Voters in Montana (D) and South Dakota go to the polls for their primaries on June 3.

The only folks that might feel somewhat disenfranchised, if you can call it that, are the Republicans in Nebraska who go to the polls on May 13, those in Idaho who vote on May 27 and in New Mexico on June 3. Methinks John McCain has it all wrapped up. But now that I write that, I’m reminded the votes of Democrats in Florida and Michigan are still in limbo, but that’s another story entirely.

So the moral of the story: in politics, the unexpected is to be expected.

** Pennsylvania *** Indiana and North Carolina

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