Florida Primary

I can understand the thinking which wishes Florida Democrats would not vote before Iowa and New Hampshire.

It's based on the principle of smaller committees who understand something based on intense investigation and making recommendations to the larger body. Most legislative bodies do something like that. On the national level, Iowa and New Hampshire have a lot of meetings with small groups all over their states with each of the candidates. We may never get the chance but they do the eyeball-to-eyeball thing we wish we could do. They usually do well in picking out the top candidates that way. After those are done, it's pretty much boring debates and soundbite TV ads ad nauseum for everyone else.

The Republicans run the state of Florida and may have realized by moving up the Presidential Primary that the Democrats would be in trouble with the national party. Far as I can tell, it makes no never mind to the Republicans. Ron Paul is the only one on that side that is making any sense and he has a long way to go to get out of the lowest tier of their candidates.

Personally, I hope the candidates show up down here before January 29 but I really want them to prioritize their time to be in Iowa and New Hampshire. I trust those folks to get a decent reading on which of the candidates is real.

But I confess I will vote on Jan. 29 even if my favorite candidate gets no official credit for it at the Democratic Party's convention.

I want someone to see Dennis Kucinich got a vote. Imagine, he actually wants to impeach Vice President Cheney, like all the rest of the country does, and he wants to set up a Peace Department as a counter to the Defense (War) Department. Imagine what would happen if we spent as much money seeking peace as we do seeking excuses to use our military arsenal so we can pay some corporation exhorbitant prices for new materiel.

I am tempted to vote for Bill Richardson. Do you know he was nominated for a Nobel prize? And he has been a good governor for New Mexico. And he actually knows Spanish, compared to the President who knows a few phrases. What would it be like to have a President who can speak Spanish in this day and age!

While I love those two guys, I will not be unhappy no matter which Democratic candidate is chosen. America is so lucky to have such a talented group of people running.

So, America, encourage all the candidates to have to go one-on-one in Iowa and New Hampshire to do what we would like to do ourselves. Look at Florida's vote as a straw vote which just might mix up the respective packs of "runners."