Editorial: On to New Hampshire

By Boston Herald Staff|11 hours ago

The snow is already blanketing over those leftover campaign posters on the streets and back roads of Iowa as the action moves to our neighbor to the north - although some of the smarter Republican candidates high-tailed it out of Iowa early. And good for them.

This bizarre ritual of American politics - ever tried explaining caucus rules to anyone from outside the U.S.? - in fact counts for little. Don't take our word, ask "Presidents" Mike Huckabee (2008 winner) and Rick Santorum (who bested Mitt Romney by about 30 votes in 2012) and on the Democratic side Howard Dean (2004). And yes we in the media are at least in part responsible for the over-hyping and over-reporting of the Iowa phenomenon. Well, something has to occupy our attention before the Super Bowl comes along.

Now we get to do it all over again for the New Hampshire primary a week from today. At least that involves a process that doesn't take two flow charts and 15 minutes of explanation - just regular voters going to a real polling place and casting a ballot in the conventional way.

Yes, it's a long established fact that New Hampshire is far less diverse than just about any other state in the nation (right up there with Iowa). But there is something entirely engaging about the small-town coffee-and-brownies campaigning all over the state that is so very New Hampshire. It's hard to fake it in New Hampshire, where for generations its voters have taken sizing up - and whittling down - candidates of both parties pretty much as part of their birthright.

And at long last real votes are being cast - not just reports to pollsters on the phone.

But let's not lose sight of the fact that a month from now - on March 1 - 11 states, including Massachusetts, will hold primary elections, with eight others to follow a week after that.

For Democrats and Republicans alike this is the start of the process, not the end. In this most unconventional of presidential years - where the "smart" people have given up making predictions long ago - it's high time voters, however angry, frustrated or unhappy had their say