I see that every large state except mine has moved its primary up to Feb. 5, National Primary Day. This whole idea of selecting a presidential nominee is so unfamiliar to our state that, assuming that confused Pennsylvanians even grasp the idea of voting on a day other than an early Tuesday in November, we might put out a butterfly ballot and nominate Kucinich. I say leave the crushing burden of choice to the suckers in New York, Florida, California and New Jersey.
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[…] Pennsylvania – Irrelevant And Proud Of It […]
Ned Raggett
Hey, I live in California and I don’t have any burden either, since I’m registered with no party and have been since I could first vote in 1990. (Smartest political decision I made in my life.)
Dave
Actually Tim it’s law that Pennsylvania can’t move their primary at the moment. You’re still paying penance for hoisting Santorum on the rest of the country.
norbizness
Don’t worry, Tim, Texas is staying behind as well.
JR
In point of fact, Florida move up past Feb 5 and, as a result, will likely have little to no say about the Democratic nomionation.
Vladi G
At this rate, the 2012 primaries will be held in February 2009.
Rome Again
A funny thing happened on my way to drop to Dem affiliation and get Independent status. I went into the local DMV, told them I wanted to change to Independent and then I was asked:
“Do you want to be affiliated with the Republican Indenpendent Party, the Democratic Independent Party, The Libertarian Independent Party…?” and this lady went through a list of about 20-30 different party names. I was like “Lady, I”m not looking for a party, that’s why I’m here”. OMG, I was absolutely amazed.
What does the term INDEPENDENT mean? I always thought it meant like, um… “independent”.
Rome Again
It’s a result of the Mayan Calendar myth. If we hold 2012 in 2009, then the Mayan Calendar date (12/23/12) isn’t real. The world won’t actually end on that day afterall! Yippee, let’s all celebrate!
ThymeZone
As long as there is still a Sadie Hawkins Day.
ThymeZone
Mayan, all Mayan.
Zifnab
Our votes rarely counts in the regular election. I don’t even know how the primaries should matter.
’00 and ’04 I voted for George W. Bush. Why? Because the electoral college can suck my dick.
zzyzx
If 2/5 is indecisive, PA could suddenly become crucial
cleek
zzyzx snags a good point: if the majority of primaries happen at the same time, we might not have a primary season where a candidate with a couple of early wins is granted Inevitable Frontrunner status. if a bunch of people get to decide without knowing who the Chosen One is supposed to be. we could end up with a close race or two!
Bubblegum Tate
I had sort of the same experience registering when I moved out here. I wanted to be an Independent, but then I looked at the fine print of the form and saw that there were “independents” for pretty much every party you can think of. And there are all these warnings about how you can’t participate in the primaries if you are an actual, you know, independent (i.e. no party affiliation). Very weird.
Greg
I didn’t know there were “Democratic Independent Parties” and so forth, but I did know many people sign up for the Independence Party when what they really wanted was the checkbox next to “no party”.
As a New York registered Democrat (you can thank Bush for that) I’m looking forward to my vote actually meaning something for a change. The state will always go to the Democrats in the end but at least I’ll actually matter in the primaries. It’s a welcome change.
Rome Again
Do you seriously think after the last seven years that’s gonna happen? I personally think indecisiveness had it’s last hurrah already. BushCo has managed to piss off enough people that there will be plenty of people ready to make that decision.
Rome Again
Hey, so long as being an extra vote feels good, why not? But, do you really think being an extra vote in a safe district is really all that important? Wouldn’t it be more important to try to help an unsafe district swing over the top instead? I personally wouldn’t brag about being an extra vote, but that’s just me.
Zifnab
These are still the primaries. Bush isn’t going to have much sway in who wins out of Edwards/Obama/Clinton.
Rome Again
Well, even though I said I wouldn’t want to vote for Hilly, anything has to be an improvement over what we have, and I’m sure there are not just a few who feel that way.
Dave
Rome, you should be able to register as “Decline to State” in California. That’s “independent”. Or you could be like I did when I first dropped my dem affiliation and pick the American Independent Party thinking that was being independent, then realize they are a bunch of wack jobs.
dwetzel
zzyzx, for PA to matter the indicision would have to last until May! That’s when we vote. It’s not like it’s March or something useful. We are absolutely the butt-end of the processes.
Rome Again
I’m not in California ;)
and when I registered as an Independent, I was in Florida.
Dave
Ah! Well then I can’t help you. :)
Rome Again
Well, thank you for your concern, but may I ask exactly when did I ever ask for help in any posts regarding independent status on this thread? Did I ever actually ask for assitance somewhere? Uh, no, not really. I was just relaying what I thought was some pretty fascinating information when I found it several months ago.
Greg
I don’t follow. In the general election being a New York voter is just being an extra vote in a safe district as you say. In the Democratic primary I’ll actually have some say for a change, or as much as one voter can have anyway. Are you thinking New York will go overwhelmingly for Hillary in the primary? That’s not a safe assumption at all.
Way ahead of you. I live in the only district in NYC that has a Republican representative. We tried to off Vito Fossella in 2006 with an underdog candidate that had no help from the DCCC, and while we didn’t win, we definitely damaged him. We emptied his warchest and the DCCC seems to be indicating that it will take this race seriously next time.
Cyrus
For a relative political junkie (I’m less of one than several people I know, but on the other hand, commenting on political blogs in the first place makes me a lot more of one than most people) I’m actually blissfully ignorant of a fair amount about national politics. Why? Because I’ve lived in Vermont most of my life. We have a third party that’s at least somewhat viable in state government (actually, that may not be too unusual, I don’t know), only one Congressional district so redistricting controversy is something that happens to other people, and three piddling little electoral votes in a safe state so it’s not like our presidential votes matter anyway.
And the part that’s relevant to this is, we also have open primaries. I’m sorry for all you poor sods who have to figure out five different ways to say you don’t want to be associated with those bozos over there, but you still want to have some input in picking them.
Rome Again
Well, yeah, I do think she will. Wanna place a bet?