The Florida Primary

Here we go again.

The Stupid Party is hellbent on blowing the biggest slam-dunk presidential election since 1980.

Florida is planning on defying the Republican National Committee and moving its primary up to Jan. 31, 2012.

Florida appears poised to schedule its Republican primary in late January, earlier than national party officials want, setting off a chain reaction that would send Iowa voters to make their choice for president the first week of 2012.

A spokesperson for Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon tells CBS News that the commission appointed to select the state’s presidential primary date is expected to announce on Friday that the Florida primary will be January 31, 2012.

The commission had been looking at a February 21 date, but Florida officials moved their target date forward this week after reports over the weekend that Missouri, Colorado and Georgia were looking to get a headstart on Florida.

The staff of the Florida governor, Senate president and House speaker, all Republicans, who each appointed 3 of the 9 members on the panel, have been discussing the move and are pushing for the January 31 timetable, the earliest possible date that the commission could pick for the primary, aides said.

Right now, the order has the Iowa caucuses — or as El Rushbo calls them, the Hawkeye Cauci — first, followed by the New Hampshire primary, the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary.

Needless to say, this will cause a chain reaction to move those events up even earlier. Right now, as it stands, the schedule is as follows:

• February 6: Iowa caucuses
• February 7: Minnesota caucuses, Missouri and New Jersey primaries
• February 14: New Hampshire primary
• February 18: Nevada caucuses
• February 21: Wisconsin primary
• February 28: South Carolina, Arizona and Michigan primaries

The end result? A frontloaded primary/caucus system that’s almost guaranteed to produce a weak candidate based on whatever candidate has the most money and best organization and coupled with the appearance of momentum. The flames of the latter are certain to be flamed by the state-run media, which hardly has the GOP’s best interests at heart.

In 2008, this process gave us John McCain, arguably the weakest candidate that could have headed up the Republican ticket. Most likely this time around, it will produce Mitt Romney, the Next Guy In Line.

Yawn. Talk about depressing the GOP base.

Florida blogger Sunshine State Sarah weighs in, republishing a statement from a key Florida GOP official:

Republicans have always been law abiding people who obey the rules. If we don’t want to go by the rules – if we want to be arrogant and only abide by the rules we like or agree with – then we should consider another party. As long as we are a member of the Republican Party we should go by their rules. If we want to change things, we should do it through the proper channels and procedures, not break the rules because we think we are better than other states. I agree that we have better demographics and are more representative than some of the four states that are authorized because of tradition and history to go early. They are small and we will be more meaningful if we are close to the front and at FULL STRENGTH.

If we break the rules again (this will be two in a row) we will alienate the remainder of the country. We have to demonstrate and prove that we can and will play by the rules before we can ask to legally be allowed to go early to help the country get our view (which we think will be a better view) of how the candidates will do with large state which has the many different voter groups that we have.

The Other McCain is clearly not thrilled about the jumpstarting of the primary season stampeding all over the Christmas holidays:

Never mind how this dumbass stunt could affect the Republican primary outcome. If those bats–t crazy motherf–kers do this, I’ll be spending Christmas in Iowa.

He also identifies the two Florida GOP officials behind the move:

A Wall Street Journal article lists state House Speaker Dean Cannon and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos as the vicious swine responsible for this crazy idea. So who are these big shots?

• Cannon has endorsed Rick Perry, and anyone who suspects Cannon’s push for a Jan. 31 primary is intended to cripple Perry’s opponents — well, you’re entitled to your suspicions.
• Haridopolos was forced out of the 2012 GOP Senate primary after a debate disaster in which he expressed his support for Obama’s troop withdrawal plan and his opposition to the Ryan budget. Haridopolos was “effusive in praising” Mitt Romney back in July. IYKWIMAITYD.

What does this look like? In four words: The fix is in.

Oh goodie. A collection of Florida RINOs hellbent on making sure the road is paved for the GOP Establishment candidates.

And, writing over at The American Spectator, RSM asks: “Why does Florida hate America?” Florida: The Evil State.

Once again, for emphasis, a front-loaded primary system benefits only the media-designated frontrunners, not the GOP voters. This process gave us John McCain in 2008 and cannot end well in 2012.

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