Republican Presidential Primary Recommendation: Change the Date

Sen. John McCain of Arizona has all but officially locked-up the Republican Party's nomination to be the next president of the United States.

We would think that Texas - the largest Republican-controlled state in the nation - would like to have some say about who the national party's presidential nominees would be, but evidently Austin is content to leave Texas Republicans sitting on the sidelines while other states both smaller than ours and with disparate political interests decide who the Republican Party's nominee will be.

The Texas Legislature bucked the national trend of states racing their primaries forward to Feb. 5 (and earlier) so that their electorates could weigh in on who the Democratic and Republican Parties' presidential nominees would be. Some states even sacrificed either half or all of their delegates just in order to help their state's favored candidate build momentum in later states.

As a result of Texas lagging behind while other states raced to the front of the nominating process, the Lone Star State's Republicans have been deprived of participating in the selection of this year's Republican nominee.

This is in spite of the fact that our fair state is the second-largest state in the nation, has the second-most number of Republican delegates at stake, has the largest Republican congressional delegation in Washington, has had a Republican filling every single statewide office since 1994, and has had both legislative chambers controlled by the Republican Party since 2002.

If any state should be at the forefront of deciding who the Republican Party's presidential nominee should be, it should be Texas.

McCain, however, has virtually sealed his party's nomination in great part by winning states that haven't voted for a Republican in a general election in two decades. California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois provided McCain with a huge bulk of his pledged delegates. In fact, 65 percent of the delegates McCain has won from state-nominating primaries and caucuses have come from states that voted for John Kerry over George W. Bush in 2004 while only 35 percent of his delegates have come from states that went for Bush.

With such a poor showing in states that actually vote for Republicans, is it any wonder that many Republicans are grumbling about their candidate?

McCain will also have to deal with the loss of one of his biggest cheerleaders in the general election.

The New York Times has already served notice that the liberal national media will not be supporting him in the general election despite being his biggest proponent in the Republican primary. That was when he faced opposition from candidates running on far more conservative platforms than his own.

The Times published a piece of political gossip intoning an inappropriate relationship between the senator and a lobbyist, and then passed it off as news. This practice of using innuendo as news is commonly used by the Times against many Republicans, but is not something McCain, as the their favorite Republican, has had to deal with many times before.

McCain, to his credit, responded effectively and seems to have won his first clash with the Times, but what remains to be seen is whether McCain will be able to withstand the sustained barrage of attacks that are sure to come between now and November. Will McCain, who has lived by media, end up dying by the media?

If Wharton County Republicans want a hand in actually deciding who the Republican Party's nominee will be in the future, they should contact state Rep. John Zerwas and state Sen. Glenn Hegar about moving up the Lone Star State's primaries to a relevant date in time for the next presidential election cycle. The earliest possible date without being punished by the national parties in the form of having delegates stripped would be preferable.

-The Leader-News published a Democrat Presidential Primary commentary and recommendation last Wednesday.