Political junkies who covet the 15 minutes of fame available to Iowa and New Hampshire residents every four years would be better off moving to one of those early primary states than trying to devise ways to make the circus come to their towns.
Michigan and Florida moved their presidential primaries to January, getting smacked around by party rule-makers for their trouble — and with dubious returns in national attention.
The Republican primary showcased Michigan as the land of lost jobs that are never coming back.
The Democratic primary in Florida demonstrated that too much time in the sun can induce mature adults to parade around with cardboard cutouts of the candidates, who had pledged not to campaign in the state.
Now comes New Jersey’s turn, albeit in a 24-state, multi-time zone — but mercifully brief — cable television spectacular. The circus is not so much coming to town as it is passing through on a speeding train.
We will probably be denied the privilege of knocking any candidates out of the race, thanks in large measure to the post-Florida withdrawals of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
So rapidly has the field narrowed that the Mercer County Republican Committee, whose chairman had backed Mr. Giuliani, barely had time to complete its endorsement vote at La Villa Ristorante in Hamilton Tuesday night before Florida voters awarded him at least four more years as “America’s Mayor.”
The Mercer GOP committee merely awarded Mr. Giuliani another third-place finish, close behind Gov. Mitt Romney and far behind Sen. John McCain. But it also left the Arizona senator two votes short of an actual endorsement.
Then again, Sen. McCain’s not-quite-endorsement in Mercer County seems in keeping with his curious position as a Republican frontrunner reviled by the party’s ruling right-wing radioheads for his failure to register adequate contempt along the center and left of the political spectrum.
It would be the ultimate irony if Mr. McCain found himself not only the nominee of the Republican Party, but also a beneficiary of the same froth-at-the-mike villification that is too little credited for its unwitting aid to the political career of his possible November opponent, Mrs. Clinton.
The mind reels at this latest snub of the nation’s former first lady. She has already been forsaken by Ted Kennedy in Massachusets and Toni Morrison in Princeton this week. Et tu, Rush?
But we shall remain calm. Maybe New Jersey will use its 15 minutes of presidential primary fame to favor Mssrs. Romney and Obama, in a bid to spare millions of radio listeners from fits of conflicted hysteria.
