81st Rant: The 2016 Presidential Primary Election Schedule

At the Republican National Committee (RNC) Winter Meeting over the weekend, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had taken what I think is a major step toward taking the White House back in 2016 by strengthening the nominee (whoever it is, and if we are EVER to take the White House in 2016 we need to follow what Andrew Breitbart had said. More on that below) and empowering the voters during the primary process.

One of the main things he did is shorten the primary process for the goal of having the convention in late June or early July. The following is a list of the rules that were passed to make it happen.

[So] on Friday, we passed new rules to shape the 2016 presidential primary process.

• First, the “carve out” states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) will hold their contests in February.
• Other states can start their contests on or after March 1.
• Any contest between March 1^st and March 14^th must allocate delegates on a proportional basis.
• Any contest after March 14^th may choose to allocate delegates proportionally or on a winner-take-all basis.
• The deadline for selection of alternates and delegates will move from 35 days before the convention to 45 days before the convention.

You can read the whole thing on breitbart.com. Now while he is on the right path toward having the convention in June or July (which I had said should happen when I wrote my 26^th Rant and my 27^th Rant on these very topics back in January, 2012) he is doing it wrong. Granted, I know I am but a drop in the Republican Party as a voter and as such have no say in the process, but at least I agree that Priebus is leading the party in the right direction with holding the convention in June or July so as to give our nominee a fighting chance during the dog days of summer and also accomplish a little of what I had mentioned in my 26^th Rant.

One thing I would see with [having the voting at the end of the month] is that all of the voting and tabulations would be done by May which means that the nominee would have three months to find a running mate and get the grassroots campaign at least started by getting the main headquarters set up before the convention. Then the day after they give their acceptance speech they can get started on their general election campaign.

You can read the whole thing at ricktheranter.blogspot.com. This in a sense also brings the dates of the Republican National Convention back to what it was during the first nomination of Ronald Reagan, when the 1980 convention was held July 14 to 17. It is also important to note that even before then the Republicans had traditionally held their conventions as early as the middle of May and as late as mid July from 1856 (when the Republicans held their first convention and nominated John Charles Fremont) until 1952 when they nominated Dwight David Eisenhower.

However, no matter what happens on our side, we all have to coalesce behind the nominee (whoever it is) after the convention because as I had pointed out in various rants during the 2012 election, the only two people who have a VIABLE chance of getting the electoral votes are the Republican and the Democrat nominees regardless of who is running as a minor (ie 3rd party or other party) candidate. We need to remember the words of Andrew Breitbart at CPAC in 2012 when he said the following (f/t to Biff Spackle of Director Blue for the transcript)

I don't care who our candidate is

You want a unity speech? I'll give you a unity speech. I don't care who our candidate is.
I haven't since the beginning of this... ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate!
And that's what the Tea Party is.
We are there to confront [the radical left] on behalf of our candidate!
I will march behind who ever our candidate is. Because if we don't, we lose.
There are two paths! There are two paths! One is America, the other is Occupy! One is America, the other is Occupy! And I don't care, and along the way... I've realized over the last three years that the Republican Party and the conservative movement is not what ABC, CBS and NBC put on the screen.
They try to portray you in the worst possible light... and when I travel around the United States meeting people in the Tea Party who care -- black, white, gay, straight -- anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive left, I will be in that bunker, and if you're not in that bunker 'cause you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you. You're on the other side.

Read that part again: “anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive left, I will be in that bunker, and if you're not in that bunker 'cause you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you. You're on the other side.” That is right. We might be zealous and support our candidate in the primary, but when the convention comes around and our candidate is not nominated, we have to support whoever the nominee for the Republican side is after the convention – even if it means holding our nose at the poling place on election day – because when we get to the fork in the road, we have to decide which branch of the fork (and from what I had seen there are only branches of the fork in the road) to go. As Andrew said, one path is America, and the other is Occupy or – since Occupy has dispersed in the middle of 2012 – Socialism. Choose wisely the path you wish to traverse, because there is no going back.

Priebus is taking the first steps to taking the White House back in 2016 with the moving of the convention to late June or early July, as well as moving the first four primaries to February, but we need to take the steps to help our candidate get across the finish line to get nominated. If we can, that is fine. If not, then we need to get behind the candidate that does ultimately get the nomination.

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