Super Tuesday

I'm just trying to hear some reality. I tend to resist being swept up in waves of adulation or harm. Some real plans, not just idealistic platitudes or calls for "change" as a virtue in and of itself -- whether from the right or left. As such, I confess that I'm not really nuts for anyone. I might sound grumpy about it -- I'm not, really. I LOVE this season. It's my version of the Olympics.

Lately I'm a little weirded by the practice I once thought was a great idea -- the ability to vote in any primary one wants. I'm generally not very loyal to parties, but I was really turned off in 2006 as I sat with my whole CDC office at lunch one beautiful *primary* election day afternoon. As the salads were served, nearly all of my high-minded, well-educated, but deeply partisan public-servant colleagues--particularly the well-paid ones--announced, unblushingly, that after lunch they were headed to the polls to vote for the rival of a candidate they hated in the opposite party's primary for lieutenant governor. Not because they wanted the rival to win, but because they were afraid their hated candidate would win, and they wanted "make sure his supporters didn't have the chance" to vote for him in the general election.

This practice is as old as the stars, I know, and it goes on on both sides. And I've been tempted to do it, I admit! But it sure bugged me that day. With independents -- REAL independents -- it's different. There's a very good reason not to formally affiliate with one party or the other -- ainly because one is apt to feel differently at different times. But in Georgia (and other states all across the country), deeply partisan members from one party can (and do) flood the box in the opposite party's primary in order to get a weaker opponent on the ballot in November. So the weak candidate wins, but is easily defeated in the general.