We Need a Bipartisan Lottery

This would be one of my dreams. I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe our country would be better off if we adopted this.

The first week of December 2010, the Democratic and Republican chair-people schedule when their primaries and caucuses are going to be. Not where, but when.

Let's say they set it up this way:

First Week of January 2011 - one state

Second Week of January 2011 - one state

Third Week of January 2011 - one state

Fourth Week of January 2011 - three states

and then from there, have one state on Monday and then Super Tuesday the first week of February 2011 with seven states, and it goes from there.

Then do a lottery. And every four years, the lottery happens again, to determine the state order. The order's determined a year in advance so states can get ready. And this way, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will stop picking the presidential nominees each year, and our entire energy economy will not be based on corn.

Examples:
I just put 2011 through a simulator and got this order:

1. Connecticut
2. Texas
3. Utah
4. Oregon, Washington, West Virginia
7. Wisconsin
8. (SuperTuesday) - New Mexico, New York, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Vermont, Wyoming

And for 2015, this order:

1. Virginia
2. Louisiana
3. Vermont
4. Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia
7. Connecticut
8. (SuperTuesday) - Alabama, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah

So, it may be some states appear in the top seven two election cycles in a row, but that's different than now, when it's the same states dictating every four years what the rest of the country is going to do.

How dare Sarah Palin be normal!

Politico's Roger Simons assesses her sins.

My 2-1/2 Cents on the Weekend in Politics

MY 2-1/2 CENTS ON THE WEEKEND POLITICS

Cent #1 - Unemployment is now at 9.5%. Joe Biden said everyone underestimated how bad the economy was. (Not everyone...) The stimulus package saved government jobs and created new ones, but the private sector is getting decimated. Yes, Pres. Bush got this thing rolling. Yes, Hank Paulson did his buddies at Goldman Sachs a favor by letting their competitor Lehman Brothers fail. Yes, the Republican Congress failed to act like republicans and enabled Bush on his spending spreee. But after a while, the Obama Administration needs to stop blaming the past when it's doing nothing to help our present and future. Obama's tripled, almost quadrupled the deficit, in the name of "saving" jobs; meanwhile Congress is passing laws that'll increase the size of government but lose more private-sector jobs. And if unemployment hits 11%, they'll report that Obama has "saved" 89% of the jobs in America.

Cent #2 - Sarah Palin is quitting as governor of Alaska in the middle of her first term because of "country first" saying that all the erroneous ethics charges her opponents are throwing at her are wasting the time and money of Alaskans. So her enemies got their way. This seriously damamges her chances and credibility of a 2012 presidential run. The worst thing that could've happened to her was for John McCain to pick her as his vice-presidential running-mate. If he hadn't, she'd still be the most popular governor in the union; she could finish out her term as governor, and then get the ball rolling for a 2012 bid. As is, she was thrust in the limelight, demonstrated she wasn't ready (her Katie Couric interview was her own fault; just name a freaking newspaper!), and she was castigated by her enemies with rare zeal.

But again, her enemies got their way. She's only making Mitt Romney look more presidential.

Cent #2-1/2 - I'm already over Michael Jackson's death. Yes, he was huge, but there were times where I wanted to see what the latest was on Iran or Honduras, and there's someone interviewing Corey Feldman or MJ's former nurse.

Hope you had a good Fourth of July!