Primarily Unfair

An addendum to my earlier post on the Electoral College system:

Though it's not a part of the electoral college system, the ridiculous scheduling of the states' primaries for the selecting of candidates has got to go. When we talk about how the electoral college system dealt with the problem of candidates giving more or less attention to different states, the scheduling of the primaries is a massive offender. Though I'm not suggesting a certain schedule in particular, the early date of some states' primaries has historically caused candidates to spend insane amounts of money and energy in addressing the voters of those early-birds. So it's been great news that the Democratic National Committee has proposed a new schedule for their 2008 primaries. Though I'm unsure of the new order, I've heard that states in a variety of regions are having their dates moved up. I imagine that there could be a better schedule or system, but I haven't really thought of what it could reasonably be; a nation-wide "general election" for a party's candidate would be unwieldy, particularly since the primaries are not operated by the government.