Parting Shots: Do the primaries really have to be so long?

Jan 31, 2012 | 07:00 PM | Thomas C. Graham

Tags  Parting Shots, 2012 election, 2012 Republican Primary, Thomas Graham

If you aren’t bored with the long-running Republican presidential primary race by now, you must be a political junkie. The talking heads on TV report breathlessly that the next “debate” is only a few days away, or that Rick Santorum got a remarkable “bump” from his showing in Iowa.

After each debate, the political analysts take over to point out every little misstep and the weakness of the offending candidates. Between debates, pollsters conduct a new poll faster than the last one can be digested, all in the hope that the candidates can better tailor their messages. An economy has reached a high degree of sophistication when it can afford so many well-educated people to tell citizens what they think. And all of this is introduced as “Breaking News.”

Aren’t there an extraordinary number of candidates still in the hunt, and why is that so? There are at least two reasons that are visible, and there might be others.....