Gary Hart: Unintended Consequences in 2008 election | Politics West

Gary Hart on the primary system, superdelegates, and rules made in reaction:

Now, all of a sudden, pundits and bloggers are raising Cain about "party bosses" and "the will of the people" and so on as if no one had ever really thought through the system that was created 25 years ago. And to heighten the drama, there are two states, Michigan and Florida, that broke party rules organizing the timing of primaries and no one seems to know what should be done with them. Sen. Clinton skirted the edge of the rules and campaigned in those states and now claims their delegates; delegates that could make the difference in the nomination. Sen. Obama observed the rules and did not campaign and he would be prejudiced by such an outcome.

This analysis is not to propose solutions. It is to encourage party officials and politicians to think ahead, to consider the consequences of decisions made in reaction and in haste.

Nominating a future president is too important to be left to "Gee whiz, how did we screw this up?" kinds of responses. Our country's future and our leadership in the world are at stake.

So, whoever the nominees are and whoever gets elected, perhaps both parties ought to hold long retreats later on in which mature, disinterested, patriotic adults take over our political parties and operate them as the kind of serious political institutions our citizens deserve and our country requires.

Hart proposes that people spend sometime thinking about solutions, but doesn't offer one.

I hope to have one outlines in the next couple of days.