DNC Panel Puts Other States Before NH Primary…

Manchester Union Leader – Almost unanimous DNC panel votes to put other states before New Hampshire
You know, I’m sick of hearing that my home state of New Hampshire isn’t “diverse” enough to hold the “First in the Nation Primary.”
Quoting from John DiStaso’s report on UnionLeader.com:

An influential panel of national Democrats voted overwhelmingly yesterday to have one or two ethnically, economically and geographically “diverse” states join Iowa in holding presidential nominating caucuses before the New Hampshire primary in January 2008.

Geographically diverse?? How the hell does a state achieve that?? If someone could explain that one to me, I’d really appreciate it. What…are our mountains not big enough? Is Lake Winnepesaukee too small? I mean, look at Iowa! (No offense meant, Iowa.) It’s flat with hundreds of miles of corn in any given direction. Does the DNC mean to tell us that Iowa is “geographically diverse?”
Economically diverse?? Do we have too many working middle class families in the Granite State for the DNC? Is there not enough poverty in New Hampshire for the DNC to be happy? This just asinine.
Ethinically diverse? With all due respect, have any of these rocket scientists in the DNC actually been to New Hampshire at all in the last twenty years? (I’m willing to bet that they haven’t set foot in the state at all.) New Hampshire–at least southern New Hampshire where a good portion of the population lives–has grown into an ethnically rich area.
Of course, these people look at numbers and statistics. Forget the Census data is already seven years old. Forget the fact that the members of this panel don’t spend a lot of time in New Hampshire. According to them, New Hampshire is whiter than the driven snow.
All they’d have to do is walk around downtown Manchester or Nashua. Go to the Mall of New Hampshire and sit in the Food Court. Park yourself at the WalMart in Bedford and people-watch. If any of these people actually saw what I see every day, they’d know that New Hampshire has diversity.
We’re not New York City but, you know what? We never will be. People who come here to New Hampshire want a different way of life. Some may call it “simpler,” and that’s fine. Those of us who live here do so because we love it here.
I understand that the DNC is under no obligation to observe the tradition and state law of New Hampshire, but c’mon. The DNC may even “suggest” their delegates to refrain from campaigning in New Hampshire.
Again, quoting the DiStaso story:

The committee discussed – but did not finalize – a suggestion by Carol Khare Fowler of South Carolina to deny candidates delegates from a state whose primary or caucus is out of step with the final DNC rule.

Roosevelt also had strong words. He said if the primary is moved to a date out of compliance with the DNC rule, “There will be a question for candidates of whether they want to campaign in a primary that does not appear to actually select delegates.”

He said the DNC would not order delegates not to campaign in New Hampshire. But, he said, “I would not expect candidates to shut down their campaigns until and unless there is a rule and then an action by Secretary Gardner that made it meaningless for them to campaign there.

By the way, the some high profile Republicans want to leave New Hampshire alone—as well they should.
People can debate whether or not New Hampshire plays a disproportionate role in the electoral process until they’re blue in the face. They always have and they always will. For the DNC to say that New Hampshire isn’t “ethnically, economically and geographically diverse” enough is absolute rubbish.
This debate rages every four years, and every four years New Hampshire has the first Primary contest. Let us hope that tradition prevails yet again.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com