LOOKING BACK: NEW HAMPSHIRE AND IOWA.

LOOKING BACK: NEW HAMPSHIRE AND IOWA. At the beginning of the year, I posted a number of times, including here, about one of my hobby horses— my hope for improvements in the way that we choose our nominees for President. I hoped that more than a small percentage of voters would have a meaningful vote and that the nominees would be chosen by more than the voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and a two or three other states. Things worked out better in one of the parties than I had hoped or thought possible (I had thought that in the long run, not this year, favorite sons might prolong a race). Every state but Michigan and Florida had a vote in the Democratic primary, and they remain symbols of how strong the forces are which want to limit voting in primaries to only a few states. I think it will be a little more implausible after seeing what happened this year to insist on a system that forces a choice before all the votes are counted.