Putting the party first

I wasn't a huge fan of Howard Dean as a presidential candidate, but I absolutely love him as the DNC chair. His focus on building the party for the future by strengthening the Democratic presence in EVERY state was a great first step towards building a long-term Democratic majority. Now, under Dean's guidance, the DNC has decided to shake up the presidential nominating calendar. The Nevada caucuses will be squeezed between Iowa and New Hampshire, with South Carolina coming shortly after those three. Apparently New Hampshire is threatening to ignore this decision and move up their primary.

Is it really so hard to accept a slight decrease in the influence of your state on selecting the party's nominee, even if it means a better chance for the nominee to win the election? I think the fact that politicians in New Hampshire and Iowa are getting so upset about these changes says a lot about the disproportionate amount of power given to states that get to hold their caucuses and primaries first. The way I see it, if the Democrats (or Republicans) want to get an edge for the REAL election, they should put aside the infighting and adopt a more sensible nomination process. Here are a couple ideas I would love to see implemented:

1. The order of the caucuses/primaries for each presidential election are determined by which states were closest in the previous presidential election. According to Wikipedia, we actually aren't doing too poorly by this measure. Maybe this could also be weighted by the number of electoral votes held by each state.
2. Hold all caucuses/primaries ON THE SAME DAY!

Both of these suggestions have the advantage of getting the candidates to focus on the most important states from the very beginning of the cycle. They still don't take into account the need to appeal to unaffiliated or swing voters, but I think either one would would be a hell of a lot better than the way we do it now.

While we're on the subject of selfish people ignoring the good of the party... for a former vice-presidential nominee, Lieberman sure doesn't show very much loyalty. None at all. On the other hand, John Edwards continues to make me even more excited about his all-but-confirmed candidacy in '08.