Kevin Rand

Wake me up when the real race starts

Morning Breath

By: Kevin Rand

Posted: 1/23/08

It's four (or so) down and 46 to go.

No, I'm not foretelling a situation for the New York Giants in next Sunday's big game.

I'm talking about the other big game - the most important race in the world.

Excuse me for confessing my ignorance, but I had to Google "primary" and "caucus" about five times each before I could get a clear understanding of what this whole pre-election election season is all about.

I learned that not every state has a primary, and not every state has a caucus; but every state has a primary, a caucus or both.

Not every rectangle is a square, either.

Take a look at our political Q-and-A on page 6 of this issue of the Daily to help clarify the confusion.

Anyway, two days after Super Bowl Sunday, Super Tuesday hits California and 23 other states in the union.

And then, finally - finally, as if it already hasn't begun, the race for The House will have realized a semi-official moment of clarity.

That's right. In 13 days we could say that all of this primary and caucus talk actually means something because both parties will have accumulated more than half of their required delegates to nominate a nominee.

Finally. No more YouTube debates. No more Dennis Kucinich. Sadly, no more Ron Paul.

No longer will New Hampshire be the center of the universe.

It's been a long time coming, but I think we can all take a collective breath of fresh air - depending on which side of the global warming debate you fall - when we can say the presidential race is out of the gates, when we can all tip our 40s in homage to the political death of John Edwards.

Now these are tightly contested races. Don't get me wrong. But don't you, like me, think the media's political coverage started just a little too soon - like a year too soon - for this election season?

And it's not just the amount of coverage I am criticizing; it's the nature of the coverage.

The talking heads yell and scream nowadays. They analyze every candidate's daily movements to a pulp.

I admit, when I saw Hillary let down her guard in New Hampshire, I took pause. I actually thought it was genuine.

That is neither here nor there, however, I just didn't think it was breaking news or front-page material like all of the three-, four- and five-letter networks did.

To me, this overdrawn election prologue is all entertainment. I enjoy it. We all enjoy it.

But really, really, did we need to judge Edwards not on the content of his character but on the price of his haircut?

I guess when election coverage begins a year before the primaries, we'll bite at anything.

I believe there are two reasons for the early and often coverage of the '08 election.

The first reason is one we probably already know. We are a media-hungry people. We get updates on our BlackBerries and on our preset Google News homepages.

The second reason is that many of us have been waiting for Bush's exit since he took his second oath of office.

This is being hyped as one of the most important elections in American history.

Hmm. I wonder why.

I only hope that our over-eagerness will reflect at the polling booths.

Iowa's turnout surpassed that of elections passed, and I cross my fingers that Californians will show up in droves.

That is the news that I would like to hear.