Wendell they learn?

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Brief article

Democrats are threatening to add four more early primaries and caucuses to compete with Iowa and New Hampshire. This strikes me as madness. We're already selecting political nominees too fast. By the first of April, the winner has emerged. The most notable illustration of why this is not a good idea is that the candidate who turned out to be the Republicans' best man in 1940 was at 0 percent in the polls on April 1. Wendell Willkie had not entered any primary. But by the day convention delegates voted, June 27, he had become not only the choice of the delegates but, according to a Gallup poll, of a majority of Republican voters as well. By that time, thorough scrutiny had revealed how unsuitable for the challenges of the time were the two Republicans leaders as of April 1, Tom Dewey and Robert Taft, who were then isolationists and would never have...