Broder "Thanks a lot, Democrats"

"What was lost [with the new Democratic plan for early primaries in Nevada and South Carolina] was any sense of public deliberation about the choice of the next president. In the general election, people have two months or more to evaluate two or maybe three candidates. In the early primaries, eight or 10 people may be vying. What is most needed is time -- and a place -- for them to be carefully examined. Historically, New Hampshire has fulfilled that responsibility. Voters there -- in both parties and especially among the numerous independents who also vote in the primary -- take their role seriously. They turn up at town meetings and they ask probing questions.... [But now] the country will be forced to witness the huge field of candidates flashing by in perpetual motion during the December holidays and the frantic first weeks of January, not standing still anywhere long enough to be measured for the job they are trying to win. Thanks a lot, Democrats" -- Washington Post columnist David Broder on the Democratic Party's plan to increase "diversity" by scheduling a more crowded slate of early primary races.