Should Al Gore be president again?

[franznietzsche]

No --- that's what the party hacks peddle to kill the idea of open primaries, plural --- they don't wanta lose their seniority.

No that's what actually happens.

So while you're insinuating I'm a party hack, I'll just let it slip that I'm a registered independent.

 

[Bystander]

There aren't open primaries --- you can't possibly know that that's what happens --- you've asserted that politics is a silly board game being played to see whose party wins and whose party loses. Party hacks are terrified of independents --- to pick up primary votes from independents means that the candidates seeking party nominations actually have to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters.

 

[franznietzsche]

There aren't open primaries --- you can't possibly know that that's what happens --- you've asserted that politics is a silly board game being played to see whose party wins and whose party loses. Party hacks are terrified of independents --- to pick up primary votes from independents means that the candidates seeking party nominations actually have to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters.

Um... yes there are open primaries. A number of states have had varies forms, extending from blanket primaries to open party primaries--though in all cases you can't vote in both 'double primaries'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_election

In case you've been living in a hole for the last ten years, yeah politics is a silly board game played on party lines. In the US anyway.

 

[Bystander]

From the Wiki link, "Open: Voters may vote in primaries of a party of their choice, the choice to be made at the voting booth. When voters do not pre-register for a party, this is called the pick-a-party primary because the voter can select which party he wishes to vote in on election day. In other open primary states, voters pre-register their party preference but the information is only used by parties for mailing lists and is non-binding.

Now, just how open is this? Let's say it's a presidential election year, and I'm interested in D for this office, R for that, D for another, R for another --- 'tain't that open.

"Blanket:" (Wiki) no longer used --- the only open primary in the list.

Lawton-Lieberman? Connecticut dems shot themselves in the foot with a guaranteed loser, in a "closed primary" --- "open," or, "blanket," the republicans and independents might have saved them the embarassment --- Lieberman is popular enough in Conn. that the republicans have let him have it essentially uncontested --- might run someone for form's sake, but not as a serious challenge.