April 11, 2011

Trumped-Up

By Chet Arthur
George Will cites the presidential nomination process as the weakest point of the American political system. He thinks the Founders would have been appalled at letting Iowa and New Hampshire weigh in so decisively. He's probably right about that. The system both parties are stuck with is not so old. It resulted from the Democrats' adopting the "McGovern Rules" in 1972 and the Republicans falling in behind. Should we be surprised that McGovern's system is weak? Most of us have forgotten the idiocy of McGovern Rules that led to such announcements on the floor of their Miami convention as: "Wisconsin casts 235.314 delegate votes for..." Now, we are seeing a return to that kind of nuttiness in the other party, the supposedly serious one. The idea that Donald Trump could run for president is absurd on its face. But it points to the Will statement. We need somehow to fix the nomination process. We have seen a number of candidacies that have taken advantage of the...(Read Full Article)