Illinois Moves Primary To Last Week

The hilarity that is our Presidential primary process continues.

According to sources inside both parties, the two state parties in Michigan have agreed to move the state's primary -- legislatively -- to Jan. 15. This is a compromise date out of respect for Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who really wanted to move the primary to Jan. 8. Others wanted the primary on Jan. 22 as a way to, essentially, play ball with the other early states. There was a nice window being created for a Jan. 22, 2008 event. But by moving to Jan. 15, this will put pressure on the other early states to either entertain a December event or lobby the two national parties to not sanction Michigan at all.

This is like the space race now. It'll never end because there's simply too much incentive for states to move up and absolutely no downside. I've read countless "what this latest move means" blog posts and it's all claptrap, because it just gets invalidated by the NEXT move.

Somebody, stop the madness. In 2012, if the national parties don't get a handle on this, the candidates should have a pact not to compete in any primary until March. Some sanity must be restored to this system.