I don't think I'm the first person to come up with this question, but I'd like to know:
Why is Iowa traditionally the first caucus state and New Hampshire the first primary state?
It's one of the many stupid things about this country's political system
This. It's an outdated mechanism from the 1950s or such, and has survived in custom, because nobody has decided to challenge it. Iowa and New Hampshire are increasingly not even representative of the country at large.
It's stupid both parties continue to sanction their first and second place role in the nominating system, long past the date that it would be useful in the slightest. Iowa and New Hampshire should be dumped forthwith and other states allowed to take the lead, or better yet, pick different states in different elections to go first.
Actually the Iowa caucuses only date to the beginning of the modern primary system in 1972. They didn't vote in 1968. The New Hampshire primary has a longer history.
