cbs 20080108 PRIMARYDAY

What is New Hampshire about to do? This is DR on the CBS radio network.  In New Hampshire, where New Hampshirians are about to tell the rest of us who will be left to vote for.

It's impressive -- the level of civic involvement here.  

But why -- would would you WANT to vote against any of these people?

You have to understand -- to be in New Hampshire in a presidential year is to be in the land of superheroes.  There are 13 of them, flying across the state, landing in small towns where they leap on to the stage as the music plays, and promise to do what seems to be impossible:  making college affordable, fixing health care, fixing immigration, fixing the tax system, creating jobs, making us energy independent, and doing it without breaking the bank.  They hold unscripted meetings where they take any question, and come up with remarkably specific answers.

And today, the people of New Hampshire go to the polls for the purpose of doing what -- sending some of these remarkable people home.  Why would you want to send a person who has all the answers to our problems home?

Suppose we took a different approach.  Suppose we took the 10 most popular national candidates, and gave them five months to AGREE on the best solutions.  No media allowed. 

And then whatever plan they come up with would go to an up or down vote of the people.

And if a majority approved, we'd take the next step, which would be to elect which one of the ten would be best able to carry out the plan.

If that approach sounds familiar, it should -- that's how the Constitution was written.  Which has worked pretty well

Now this