Mark my words, there will be no brokered convention

[Hippo_Tron]

This thing will be over one way or another by Super Tuesday or at the very least a week after. The condensed primary calendar is designed to give us a nominee months in advance of the convention and it will do just that. We saw the results of a condensed primary calendar in 2004 when John Kerry had it locked up by March and we will see it again this year.

[Desertrose]

1. But it still sucks.

The primaries are a joke.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. I'd like to return to the primary calendar we had in the 70's

It gave us McGovern and Carter, which was exactly who the voters wanted and the establishment didn't.

Iowa and New Hampshire only have the power they do now because other states insist on moving up their primaries. In '72 and '76, Iowa and New Hampshire were just methods by which unknown candidates could make themselves known. They did not sew up the nomination process by any means.

[PATRICK]

3. This aggravated

the odd caucus in Iowa and the Independent rush in NH meaning that local party member less than ever get a voice in the selection. We should never blame those states but the tweaking of the whole system to make it worse for even worse motives, such as plain old fear of money and wounds and democratic risk.

It can get much worse as I think you can easily see. One gaffe by Obama and Hillary might have been locked in instead until her first grueling test in the fall. This system might have made no difference but it presents an illusion instead of a full democratic process. For any American, the election is over now. Not as bad as five Supremes in 2000 actually overthrowing democracy, but pretty bad for the party championing it.