NP: Tool, 10,000 Days

David Broder attacks the new Democratic primary calendar in the Washington Post, which got me thinking. Why not come up with a more programmatic schedule based on number of delegates? Divide the calendar up into, say, four segments, and then divide up the states into quartiles based on number of delegates. Low-delegate states go first, then medium, large and extra-large. Ideally, this would allow a candidate to rack up delegates early without putting the horse race out of reach.

I would have to look at both the math and the calendar to see if this would have the unintended consequence of letting candidates wait until the big guns come online towards the end of the process, but if nothing else, that dynamic might keep a winner from being crowned too early in the process. It also might allow late entries and dark horses to make big moves.

Anyway, just a thought. Feel free to tell me why it wouldn't work in the comments.