I’ve been down on this entire election. The Iowa early caucus – which I’ve decried my entire life as unfair, inherently unreliable and just the wrong way to pick candidates – for this and the previous two presidential primaries has proven incompetently managed as well. In the past I didn’t worry as much but this election risks too much and we’re talking dire outcomes if the Democrats pick wrong.

In the past our quaint and quirky way of running elections might have been an amusing bit of Americana but now it’s a corrupt embarrassment.

#DemocracyIsDead

My solution would be to have ten states hold their primary at a time, two weeks apart. You can start in March, have it over before Memorial Day over a ten-week period. The order which states would vote would be held in a drawing one year before the election (hold it on President’s Day) to give the states plenty of time to know in advance and prepare. And yes, paper ballots only. After all, it worked perfectly for over 200 years.

I’m with you Ellen.
I’ve said to my husband many times that I wish they’d let us all mark our votes on paper -not machines – and then hand count them including all the mail-in and absentee ballots, even if it took several weeks to hand count millions of votes.
Who cares if CNN, ABC, MSNBC….can’t be the first to call the election, sometimes erroneously I might add.
Elections aren’t, or shouldn’t be, about ratings, it should be about counting every vote and getting the count right. And making sure Russia or other right wingers cheating to win aren’t tipping the scales.

Also, I wish the anchors would stop whining about the delay in getting the tallies. It’s way more important to get the numbers right than fast. If it’s not on TV schedule, well, too bad. Suck it up buttercups.

I’m disappointed to learn that turnout is in line with 2016 which means it was low. Not sure if that forebodes anything for the general but I’d feel better if it had been really high.

MSNBC is reporting on the actual caucusing.

Now that voting has started, Tucker Carlson is “covering” the caucuses by attacking the candidates. I’m going to change the channel for now.

• Not sure where I picked ‘Ol’ Handsome Joe’ up from (Wonkette maybe?), but I do think it suits him :)

I’m not sure who I will finally support (probably Elizabeth, but it’s not that I can vote, anyhow), but my fervent wish is for Ol’ Handsome Joe* to come out on top in this one. Nothing would delight me more than for Trump and his minions to see that all their evil efforts in Ukraine and the formerly hallowed Senate had been in vain.