George Washington and the Nomination Process

Can it really be that this is the best approach to determining the Presidential candidate for each party? The last I looked, we no longer live in a world in which we have to get on our horse to travel from one town to the next to get our message to the public. The days of stumping from the back of a train are nothing more than remnants of an era long gone. Communication through the mail and getting word out only through the newspaper is an ancient and cumbersome approach. The voice of the candidates is heard around the globe instantaneously. Their message is spread by way of 21st century technology. So why do we approach the process as if we are living in a time of quill pens and Paul Revere?

There is no need for the candidates to give variations on a theme hundreds of times. We don't have to be faced with a situation where the stump speech is repeated in town halls, houses, auditoriums, arenas and a hundred other places over and over. The media and the voting public turn off to the words and start searching for the distractions that too often take center stage. For the last year and a half Clinton and Obama have exhausted themselves, exhausted their coffers, and exhausted the English language in a continual assault that is as unnecessary as it is counterproductive.

When are we going to reach the conclusion that present day circumstances demand present day responses to the procedures utilized to find a candidate of choice? To permit elected officials to announce their candidacy so far before the primaries begin just serves to take them away from their responsibilities to their present office and foist them upon us much too soon. I know that shaking hands and looking in the eyes of the electorate provides a benefit to the candidate. I know that each opportunity to meet and greet can lead to something greater. But in the weighing of benefits and detriments, there is no contest. We must streamline what the candidates do and for how long they can do it. Otherwise,after awhile, their words are nothing more than sound and fury signifying nothing. It need not be this way.