Super Mega Primary Day

California will hold its 2008 primary election on February 5, and the Washington Post says that some fifteen other states may follow suit. Some of those states: New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey.

This strikes me as an "oh God" moment in American electoral politics. Iowa's caucuses run in late January, and New Hampshire's primary is typically a week later.

Stick a big state mega primary in one week later, leaving approximately a month before the Super Tuesday battle for the South in early March and you've front loaded the increasingly insane money game to a degree never seen before.

Was there ever a time when it was June or July or August or September before we knew who the two major party candidates would be? If it's all sewn up by March and the candidates are hefting around $100 million (or more) a piece, we literally have months to grow to loathe both of them. Months of the kind of hit pieces the right wing noise machine routinely spins out. Months of the kind of fake scandals and gotcha journalism that pass for thoughtful reporting these days. Months of talking points and campaign promises from each side that will simply be turned into water-muddying chatter on the Sunday morning shows, revealing nothing at all.

I have to admit though that a lot of my unease about this is the idea that it might be Hillary. Come on Democrats. Most of us don't want her elected now, but if we nominate her and then have to listen to her for eight or nine months before actually having to vote for her, I don't think we can possibly win.