Surge-Voters

Today, the New Hampshire Primary will be held. It will be a much more legitimate expression of voter sentiments than Iowa was pertaining to who should be the next President. The alphabet networks and cable news channels are all abuzz with commentators and spin doctors spinning their skewed versions of the various candidates. And people "on the street" are getting in on the act as well. The problem I have with all this is that a significant number of people seem to be making their decisions for whom they support by who has the most momentum. And I don't know why. Personality, character, health, and, of course, the ability to effectively communicate are important considerations. But more than that, whoever is elected President will also decide which bills to sign (or veto), nominate Federal and Supreme Court judges, conduct the nation's foreign policy (including life-or-death and war-or-peace decisions), and head an Executive Branch that will stamp its own version of how a government can effectively function while remaining true to the Bill of Rights. So, with so much at stake, so many relevant factors among the candidates to choose from, and so much time (more than a year) to have watched them campaign and debate, it's just a little bit dismaying for me to see sudden, last-minute, large swings in the polls. Dismaying, because that would seem to indicate that a substantial number of voters out there are doing nothing more than riding bandwagons instead of carefully considering the candidates and issues. I'd be curious to get inside the minds of some of these "surge-voters", but I'm afraid of what I might find there (a vast, empty chasm)!

Four years ago, as a Florida Democrat, I felt cheated out of an opportunity to play even a small role in selecting a nominee in my own primary. Why? Because in Iowa and New Hampshire, John Kerry rode a surge of momentum and the other viable candidates dropped out within a few weeks. By the time my Florida primary took place, the race was all but over. Now my state is taking a lot of heat for moving its primary up to January 29. But in spite of that, New Hampshire hasn't even counted its votes yet, and already the big media is practically crowning Obama as the nominee and writing Hillary Clinton's political epitaph! What is with these people, anyway?!!