DAVID STEGON / Stafford County Sun
Published: March 5, 2008

But even if I am a relative newbie to this whole presidential politics thing one thing is already perfectly clear: This system stinks.

Since the beginning of this year the presidential candidates from Republicans John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have crisscrossed the country campaigning in primary after primary.

Every couple of days someone wins and gains a little momentum while others take a step back. Some, mainly John Edwards and Mitt Romney, already dropped their campaigns before reaching the finish line, which causes me to ask the question: Why in the world do we choose our candidates like this-

It seems unfair that some candidates can grab a couple of early wins and ride the momentum to the party's nomination while other candidates lose their footing before it feels like the entire process even started.

It is time this country overhauls its voting tactics for modern times. Why not allow for one national primary voting day-

Pick a Saturday in February and let registered members of each party vote for their candidate. The winner gets the nomination and can immediately start the run for president, instead of waiting (in the Democrats case, at least) until possibly June for a decision to be made.

For example, by the time the Virginia primaries rolled around Feb. 12 it was a week after Super Tuesday already passed. McCain held a stranglehold on the Republican nomination and Obama was running on momentum from his victories the previous weeks. Romney withdrew from the race and Clinton was scrambling to get back on her feet.

Was it any surprise that McCain and Obama -the two frontrunners - swept the Potomac Primaries- Would the state voted differently if Super Tuesday was a week after the Virginia primaries instead of the week before-

It's hard to say.

Maybe the rural voters in parts of the state would have come out stronger for Huckabee if his fate had already not been decided. Maybe everyone who jumped on Obama's bandwagon would have acted differently. It just seems like the process clouds the thinking of future voters.

For example, Stafford County Sun columnist Alane Callander wrote in the Feb. 8 edition that she liked John Edwards the best, saying he was giving her "a comfortable place to be. He was speaking out against corporate greed - and insisting that we should face up to widespread poverty in our nation."

Seems like a good reason to pick a candidate.

Callander, though, went on to write with Edwards losing support in the early primaries she had to switch her vote, admitting that she "usually plan(s) to vote for the candidate most likely to win the November election," which is just plain stupid.

Why even vote then-

It is not about picking the winner. It is about voting for who you want to. And sadly, there are many voters out there who vote on who they think will win instead of who they want to win.

Maybe if the primaries were all held on one day people would vote for WHO THEY WANTED and ignore all the other reasons. At least I would hope so.

David Stegon grew up in Woodbridge and freelance writer for the Stafford County Sun.

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