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DUH!
What I keep thinking about is the fact that I've never seen a race (outside of Ted Kennedy's bid) which allowed the dozens of later primary states to weigh in. If we insisted on that focus, it would reduce the impact of these early media anointments and force the candidates to compete with equal zeal in different regions of our country.
We always wait for different counties in reporting states to close their polls and have their votes counted before we call elections. That same dynamic may be in play in this very election, where there may be a reservoir of support for one or the other of the candidates somewhere else in America which could shift the balance of the race. But, there's a push underway from interests and supporters of leading candidates to close the campaigns down and coronate a leader before the vast majority of other states have weighed in.
We can already see how much the facades and props of these campaigns have given way to the raw truths underneath their words and pronouncements. A bit more of that (constructive) unmasking and revelation of these candidates' positions and record would be a benefit to our democracy and a benefit to the issues we intend for them to represent.
If we close the race down now, or try and narrow the choices, now, before most of the country has been able to hear from and question these candidates, we will narrow the issues which will be propelled into the general campaign. We need a broadening of the discussion of these issues and concerns, not a tightening or a loping off of representation.
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