The Case for a National Primary
Super Tuesday a letdown after Super Sunday

Last weekend’s Super Bowl between the previously undefeated New England Patriots and the late season powerhouse New York Giants was one for the ages. The game pitted two of the NFL’s more intriguing quarterbacks—New England’s Tom Brady and New York’s Eli Manning—against each other, and in doing so put a spotlight on their contrasting styles.

Brady is the golden boy who seemingly could do no wrong. At 30 and in his prime as a player, Brady was going for his fourth championship ring.

Manning, on the other hand, had been accused of being not vocal enough of a leader to make it in the high stakes world of New York sports. Constantly compared to his older brother Peyton, Eli seemed destined to be an average quarterback in a league (and town) where average just doesn’t cut the mustard.

But something odd happened during the playoffs. Eli Manning started playing good, smart confident football and his teammates responded in kind. They won three straight playoff games on the road, including classics against their rival Dallas Cowboys and Brett Farve’s Packers, and Eli didn’t fumble or throw an interception a single time.

The Las Vegas line for the Super Bowl favored the Patriots by 12 points but astute watchers of the game predicted a much closer affair. And that’s the way it went down last Sunday. In a game where both teams had their chances in the fourth quarter, it was Eli Manning and the Giants that made the critical plays on their way to a 17-14 Super Bowl victory.

One of the things I like about pro football is that its playoffs utilize a “one-and-done” system. By that I mean that as soon as you lose a game, you go home and start thinking about next season. That’s what makes the NFL and the NCAA basketball championship so exciting and it’s also what makes the “best-of-seven” playoff system in baseball, basketball and hockey seem eternal and boring in comparison.

If Super Sunday was a great night for football fans, Super Tuesday was more like the NBA playoffs—drawn out with no conclusions and no end in sight. Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did about as well as pollsters expected them to do while John McCain survived incredulous accusations that he is too liberal for mainstream conservative republican voters. (Just how far to the extreme right do you have to be to view McCain as a liberal?).

Republican Mike Huckabee, claiming to be this season’s only true Christian, family values candidate, did well in places like Tennessee, Alabama and his home state of Arkansas. Meanwhile, those very same states were pummeled by tornadoes Tuesday night, suggesting that maybe Huckabee doesn’t speak for God as much as he claims to.

As a North Carolina voter who will have to wait until the first Tuesday in May to cast his vote, I have to admit that I’m a little bit biased against the whole antiquated primary system. Chances are that both nominations will be a done deal by the time I enter the voting booth and I think that that is both undemocratic and unfair (not necessarily the same thing).

And I’m not alone. There is a growing movement toward a national primary day in the United States and, quite frankly, it’s about time.

In the old days, it was quite reasonable to have states vote at different times because it was hard for candidates to campaign in different areas of the country in a short period of time. Now they can jet from Bangor to Burbank in a matter of hours or simply use electronic technology to reach people if they prefer.

It is clear from the voting that takes place in November that the country has the balloting infrastructure to have everyone in the country vote on the same day. Why not do that for the primaries?

I suggest that Congress make some serious changes to our election process and that they include campaign finance reform and a national primary day. Super Bowl Sunday could be followed by Super Tuesday every four years. All of the states would have the same exact presidential ballots. Registered democrats would have the opportunity to choose from all of the democratic candidates and independents, republicans would choose from all of their candidates and independents, and non-affiliated voters could pick one from the entire list, including Green Party and Libertarian candidates.

Instead of having a delegate system, the general election in November would be between the democratic candidate who received the most total votes in the nationwide primary, the republican who did the same, and any independent candidate who earned, say, 15% or more of the primary vote.

Then, our president would be the candidate who gets the most total votes in November. No more of this arcane red state-blue state nonsense. The man or woman who gets the most votes is president. Period.

We have the technology to bring our election process into the 21st century. I just don’t think we have leaders with enough foresight to do it.