Primary Shenanigans
The more I read and think about presidential primaries, the clearer it becomes that the entire system is broken and getting worse. The issue of voters in open primary states voting not for the candidate they want to win, but to influence the election in some nefarious way has raised its ugly head again. While I don't know of this being a problem in past N.H. elections, apparently it has been a problem in Michigan in the past, and threatens to be a problem again.
On Thursday, 1/10, Markos Moulitas (Kos) posted a piece on his widely-read blog that urges Democratic voters in Michigan to vote for Governor Romney in the upcoming Republican primary. The idea behind the tactic is to keep Romney in the race, so that the Republican battle for the nomination remains wide open for a longer period of time, draining the Republican candidates of resources they would otherwise direct against the Democratic candidates.
You can find the blog at http://kos.dailykos.com/. Look down the page for a 1/10/08 entry titled, "Let's have some fun in Michigan." The blog describes three cases where this tactic has worked in the past in Michigan.
Will this work? Probably not, Kos is not that widely followed, but who knows? I do know I don't like the idea if even one voter follows Kos's plot.
It's time to close the barn door on open primaries before the horse gets out of the barn, and we're standing around shaking our heads after some election wondering, how could this have happened?
