Okay, not quite, at least not yet.  Wyoming Republicans have decided to hold their caucuses on January 5.   Iowa and New Hampshire are certain to respond, with both states now likely to move into December.  At this rate, we’re going to have a Republican nominee before we have a National Champion (please God, not that school out west again).

Frankly I’m a fan of the old system.  It’s not perfect, but it allowed a few small states to vet the candidates for the rest of us.  In some ways, it wasn’t fair to the rest of us in states like New York because the nominee was decided before we got to cast our votes, but nobody can actually meet a significant portion of New York’s population.

This massive race to be first and early hurts the system in two ways.  First, it has turned the race into not much more than a fundraising contest.  Yes, there was an aspect of that before, but there was the possibility of an especially good candidate to break through.  Now that’s much more difficult, if not impossible.  Second, it will leave our candidate out there like a pinata for almost a year.  The media attention will be almost all bad on a single person rather than having candidates seen as big winners at least through March.  This is easier for the Democrats due to the liberal media, and the extra couple of months are sure to hurt the nominee, whoever that happens to be.