The Election Should Be A Marathon

Last (Tuesday) night's results in Wisconsin, where underdogs Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz won, keeping Hillary Clinton on a losing streak and possibly popping the aura of invincibility surrounding Donald Trump, happened more than two months after the Iowa Caucus, the first state to hold primary elections.  I have heard that many people believe that this primary election season goes on too long.  Many states have pushed up their primaries and caucuses as close to the front of the season as possible to "make their voices heard," thereby leaving an increasingly huge gap of political nothingness from the spring until the political conventions in the late summer.

I never understood that thought, and I think I can finally articulate why there should be a dragged-out process for each party instead of a quick deluge of voting now that Wisconsin has muddied the waters with their results.  I don't think having a months-long campaign is going to cripple the presidential election process.  In fact, I think it enhances it.

Moreso now than in any year I can remember, there are a lot of fracturing amongst Americans on who they like for president.  That's a good thing, and the best way for each of us to figure out which candidate is best is to put them through their paces.  You can't do that if all 50 states vote in February.  There needs to be a slow vetting process, where they get asked questions about every single thing a president will face, because he or she will face all of it once he or she gets elected.  Also, I like to believe that presidents are more likely to be seen as fit for office if the people get to know and analyze him or her over the course of months and not weeks or even days.  Finally, you never know what current event or scandal could pop up and damage a candidate's campaign.  Maybe there's a terrorist attack that makes people think we need someone with more experience in Islamic extremism.  Or maybe TMZ reports that Trump hired an undocumented worker as a nanny, or held billions in a Panamanian bank.  It would suck for either party if that happened to a presumptive nominee after they got through a sprint of a primary season, but that would give other candidates a chance to become viable again if it were held in a slower-moving process.  In such a case, what do you know, the states supposedly lagging behind in the election cycle and even having their caucuses and primaries last are going to be important after all!

What I'm saying is is that we are electing our president.  We all know Election Day is the first Tuesday in November.  That won't change.  So why the rush to complete the first part of the process before I get allergies?  The American people need time to think.  And maybe, just like what could be inferred from Wisconsin, the American people have started to think that maybe the favorite shouldn't be the nominee, and they voted as such.  And there's not a darn thing wrong with that.