There are few things more evident in politics than the need of New Hampshire to get over itself and stop thinking that its voters do something magical every four years in which the rest of the nation is in awe. It’s a presidential primary, people, not the Burning Man Festival. (That’s in Nevada, and it happens every year!)
New Hampshire’s prickly Secretary of State Bill Gardner — who faced off with Nevada Republican officials last year and got them to move our state’s primary to Feb. 4 by threatening to hold his before Christmas — explained in a story published last year why his state law says no other primary can happen within seven days of New Hampshire’s. Here’s what he said:
“The seven days is so that in the event something surprising happens here, the rest of the country will have an opportunity for a glimpse of what this [candidate] is,” added Gardner.
Yes, well, we were all certainly surprised by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s runaway victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday, announced seconds after the polls closed. That was something that only every person alive and breathing could have predicted.
In other words, in the event that something surprising doesn’t happen in New Hampshire, the Seven Holy Days of Reflection are not necessary! Nevada could easily have had its caucus on Saturday, and there was no good reason to knuckle under to Gardner and move it.
Of course, there was no way to know that at the time, and ex-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman was practically living with the state at that point in a vain attempt to show he’s the sane one in the Republican primary batch. But that still doesn’t obviate today’s meditation: Ususally, the winner of the New Hampshire primary is totally predictable.
Tune in tomorrow for Day 3′s meditation as we continue to honor Gardner and the voters of New Hampshire during the Seven Holy Days of Reflection!
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