After a botched Iowa Democratic caucus that led to questions about who, if anyone, actually won the vote, and a Republican vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire that seems to have only muddied the waters further, the full primary race is now on. But before moving on, it would behoove the leaders of the two big parties to take a moment and consider that it may be a good time to seriously rethink their primary process, with one clear goal in mind: replace Iowa and New Hampshire as the top automatic lead-off states.
The leadership of the two parties should have one overriding goal for their presidential selection: Choose a candidate who will give their side the best chance to win in November. While it may be pleasing to think that the party leaders should be trying to push for the best or most qualified candidate, the reality is that is not the party leaderships' real role anymore. Their real focus should be on helping the party take the White House and help other candidates down the ballot line.