New Hampshire and Iowa: A Gift to America

This Presidential nominating process is fatally flawed. As someone who has watched the nominating process since 1984, the efforts by the media and political establishment to margainilize the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of big states dominated by media elites is dissapointing. The Iowa caucus has been for years the purest form of Democracy. Tonight's caucus once again demonstrated this.

New Hampshire, a state small enough where every voter can meet every candidate has been critical as well. I recall fondly the 1988 New Hampshire Primary. That night watching at home with my parents I saw Michael Dukakis best Dick Gephardt and Jesse Jackson and develop momentum for the nomination. We saw Bob Dole's legendary temper erupt and cost him any chance of upseting George Bush. Heck, Ed Muskie cried in New Hampshire and it finished him. In 1992 and 1996 I watched with fascination as Pat Buchanan's pitchfork army sent a message to the media and elites in Washington. In 2000 we watched John McCain and Bill Bradley both take on the partisan machinery and perform well. The sort of retail politics New Hampshire brings us is what America needs- and taking that away will hurt America in the long run.