he Republican National Committee deserves credit for taking on a threat to the presidential selection process that is both difficult and all too real: the truncated primary season.
In Indianapolis last week, the RNC's Rules Committee voted for a new calendar under which primaries would be held on four dates from February to May, with the small states going first.
This is designed to stretch out the campaign, giving challengers a better chance of becoming contenders. It would be a considerable improvement over the current system, which gave the nation its major-party candidates on March 7 this year - far too early and after very limited competition.
Still, the plan has several flaws in concept and implementation. The proposal advanced for more than a year by the national secretaries of state, for four regional primaries, would likely prove superior, though it has problems, too.
One serious drawback of the GOP plan is that it contains no provision to keep Iowa and New Hampshire first. These two states have proven their ability to listen to candidates and to turn out voters. Without an exemption for Iowa and New Hampshire, the GOP plan would likely guarantee the nomination to the most heavily funded candidate, since others could not compete effectively in more than a dozen jurisdictions at once.
Another problem is how the GOP would coerce the states into adopting its calendar. Severe penalties, such as reducing delegations by half or more for those states that go early, would generate powerful opposition.
The secretaries, by contrast, have attempted to get states to adopt their plan voluntarily, by passing model legislation. The regional approach would avoid situations that occur in the GOP plan, by which, for instance, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts would vote in separate months.
The GOP may improve the plan in time for its national convention this summer. In any event, the Republican Party is showing better citizenship than the Democrats, who have callously settled for the discredited status quo.
