Media Criticism

I wrote last week about my experience on the partisan side of politics so I thought it would be good to show that I am a non-partisan observer at heart. I spent my entire day immersed in the Wisconsin primary starting with my work at the polls in Franklin, Wisconsin and ending with some result collection in Pewaukee which is a suburb 25 minutes outside of downtown Milwaukee. These experiences offer an interesting view of the electoral process from the inside out.

Wisconsin has relaxed rules on balloting, registration and identification at the polls. I know that some electors in Franklin were surprised that they did not need to show an ID card to check-in at the polls. You can use any identifying document with your current address to register at the polls. These lax rules may give the impression that our polling place was messy, chaotic and unruly. The hard work of people like Sue, Bill, Kurt and Bob helped keep Ken Windl Park humming along efficiently. I left at 5:00pm and we had nearly a third of our electors through the polls with the busiest three hours ahead.

My work as a precinct reporter for Edison Media Research involved traveling out to Pewaukee to pick up optical scan results for both party primaries. This polling place was less-used than the Franklin station but the election inspectors were great at dealing with a late rush of traffic before 8:00pm closing. I had some interesting conversations with voters as the polls were closing about matters more sophisticated than who we voted for. My experience at the polls today was positive from start to finish and I am heartened that my fellow Wisconsinites are willing to take up the responsibilities of democracy just as readily as they accept its fruits.

I know that readers of this blog are probably sick of me talking about the primary debates. I also understand that I sound like a broken record when it comes to the failings of the televised debates for both parties. I am here today to say that I have heard the best debate in a long time about the issues and it involved no visual elements whatsoever. National Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio have done what a dozen plus debates have failed to do: get candidates to talk about issues.

There were parts of the Democratic debate on December 4th that were uncomfortable or imperfect. The question about buying Chinese toys for Christmas was a throwaway question and Christopher Dodd seemed to criticize and make light of the question all in one answer. I couldn’t possibly blame NPR for the failings of political dialogue; that blame is best left to commercial media, the parties and the American public. The NPR debate format may not have solved all of the problems with American politics but it gave a game plan for future debates to succeed.

NPR used a few questions from listeners and activists to guide the debate. The candidates present in Iowa for the debate were given room to roam when answering instead of being penned in by the fact that the debate host had to get through dozens of ridiculous questions. The debate was more civil even when Hillary Clinton and John Edwards got into a tiff about the condemnation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard by Congress. I am no Luddite and I enjoy technology but my hope is that we have more radio debates in the future. It is time to stop messing around with all of these crazy debate formats and spend hours on public radio listening to candidates have substantive conversations about the real issues facing America. Down with YouTube, up with old time radio!

In last week’s edition of Newsweek, the magazine’s political reporters highlighted the quaintness of Iowa in relation to its status as the first nominating contest in the nation. While the article is interesting and a bit condescending to the people of Iowa, the graphic entitled “Fixing the System�? was particularly interesting. The nascent debate over reforming the primary system in America is highlighted by four distinct plans.

First term Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wants to break the nation into four regions while maintaining Iowa and New Hampshire as the first nominating contests. These regions would rotate position with successive elections to ensure national balance. Renowned political wonk Larry Sabato wants a purer regional system with four regions picked at random each election year. Sabato’s system includes a provision for two small states to be chosen randomly as the first nominating contests. The American plan offered by political scientist Thomas Gangale would group states by combined congressional districts while the Republican National Committee would allow states to go from first to last based on ascending population level.

These ideas are a good start and every voter needs to push their chosen party, their representatives and their neighbors into action. Iowa and New Hampshire may have a historical role at the beginning of the nominating process for both parties but it is time for a new tradition. I think media outlets would love the idea of rotating primaries, a national primary or something else that would create variety. After all, it is all about the story for reporters and pundits. There would be plenty of stories to be had by speaking to voters in Rhode Island, California or Montana that suddenly are thrust into the role of kingmaker for the first time in the history of the primary.

I think the debate over the primary process hinges on what happens in upcoming months. If candidates like Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani receive their party’s nomination, there will be no furor over the excessive role of money and political legacy in early nominating contests. I guarantee if somebody like Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul or John Edwards is able to wrestle the nomination from frontrunners, organizations like the DLC and the Republican National Committee will be able to push for change because they do not want insurgents to disrupt the system.

I announced my endorsement of Senator John Edwards a few posts back but I want to speak today about Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson is the type of candidate that looks fantastic on paper, a shoo-in for the nomination: former energy secretary, governor of a “purple�? state, experience in foreign policy and a platform that is purely Democratic. As Mother Jones reports today, the problem with Richardson’s campaign is that politics is not simply about ideas.

I admit that when I hear Richardson speak in debates, I cringe at the wonkiness of his language. I love his perspectives on the environment, education and college loans. I also like the idea of someone from the West giving a presidential bid a chance. The problem is that Governor Richardson is an ideas candidate not a candidate that evokes happiness, anger and bile at the opposition party in each of his speeches. Richardson is deeply ensconced in Democratic politics and his connections to Bill Clinton and other moderates do not help him in an election where Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden are fighting for votes.

His campaign cannot define itself as an outsider campaign (Edwards, Kucinich), a reform campaign within reason (Obama) or a desire to use new ideas bandied about in Beltway meeting rooms (Biden, Dodd). Governor Richardson projects an idea instead of a charismatic template that voters can apply to other candidates. I would never instruct someone as experienced in politics as Bill Richardson to try to be more charismatic; Bob Dole tried to be more charismatic in 1996 and he got creamed. I would say that Richardson needs to be aggressive in using new media and highlighting the fact that voters can get a Hillary Clinton-plus platform without the baggage.

While the Democrats and Republicans focus their attention on Iowa and New Hampshire, both national parties are contending with issues of scheduling. The Democratic Party seems to be victimizing itself at every turn by adhering to the ridiculous legal mandates within Iowa and New Hampshire state law dictating their place in the primary process. DNC Chairman Howard Dean and others have indicated that Florida and other states will not have any delegates at the national convention next summer if they hold their primary ahead of the party’s schedule. Candidates are signing pledges not to campaign in Florida, Michigan and other states in order to provide legitimacy to their primary efforts.

Howard Dean may think that he is establishing discipline but the DNC and the RNC aren’t legal bodies. Political parties are organizational tools established at the will of the people to help define (or divide, depending on your perspective) political thought. If states want to pass laws that move their primaries to Christmas, the Democrats need to recognize the legal reality. I am not a fan of Iowa and New Hampshire acting as the initial political determinants for the presidential campaign but their legislatures are autonomous from the ideas of political parties.

The Democrats will suffer greatly if they persist with the policy of keeping delegates of violating states out of the convention. Democratic activists feel that 2008 is a slam dunk but the party has screwed up in the past (just look at the 2004 convention when they played patty cake with President Bush). An article in Salon today points out the frustration of activists in Florida which may lead them to sit out the presidential primaries or choose a Republican candidate in November 2008. Dean’s image as the grassroots hero, cultivated in 2004 and in his 50 state campaign of 2006, is greatly damaged by his bureaucratic overreaching.

We have too many problems in America to allow the national party committees to derail the political process. Future problems with Iran, Social Security, health care and dozens of other issues mean that the Democrats and Republicans need to allow the primary process to happen organically. If voters dislike the process, they can speak with their state legislators and vote out legislators that support an acceleration of state primaries in the next election. The DNC and RNC need to begin planning their conventions and laminating passes and allow politics to play out amongst the states.