On our March 3 Show we shall discuss the presidential primaries and look forward to SuperTuesday®. (I used the trademark thingy there because I was not sure if some opportunistic bastard already had taken it.) The two hotly-contested races in the ... I’ll back up. There are two political parties. Those parties have funneled the system into two channels. An eligible, registered person can vote either Republican or Democrat, as those parties represent both sides of all political questions.

   Before I get too far on this, let me try to toss the sarcasm out of the waterway. (See? I maintained a metaphor right up to the end there—"funnel", and "channel" then "waterway.") Very few political or social issues are so simplistic as to have only two "sides" or views in their regard. Most holders and seekers of political office in this country are happy to oblige this one-size-fits-all bi-polarism as it feeds into easy manipulation. Of course, post-Citizens United the candidates themselves are less prone to divide Good vs. Bad—at least not with the grainy, black-and-white attack ads that so many people—based on the effects of those ads on polls taken "before" and "after" would indicate—seem to love, as the same time they say they cannot stand the ads or people who would run them. The candidates leave the dirty work to the new Super PACs.

   President Obama has to sweat out hard-fought campaigns waged by Darcy Richardson of Florida, Jim Rogers of Oklahoma, Vermin Supreme of Massachusetts, and Randall Terry of the intellectual abyss.

   On the other hand we have watched the Republicans "debate" twenty times in different venues in staged elimination rounds that evoke so many comparisons to aspects of high culture—being voted off the island, being told "You’re fired," not dancing well enough amongst the stars.

   How did this system get so bastardized? Money is easy to blame. Funnel (I’m back to the metaphor) enough to a candidate and she or he is virtually guaranteed a win. I say "virtually" because, as was shown in 2010's race for governor, even a lot of money cannot save a candidate who does not connect with the voters.

   Mitt Romney has money and chari$ma, so money will not be a factor for him in Michigan’s primary. Well, money has helped Mitt run a lot of attack ads against former Senator Rick Santorum. But Santorum sort of threw himself down the well in the most recent debate, unable to distance himself from the former President who seldom is mentioned, George W. Bush. Unfortunately for former Senator Rick, W clung to him like the body of Drew Ballinger (played by actor Ronny Cox) in "Deliverance." The more Santorum struggled in the water, the more he became entangled in the policies of the man from Crawford, Texas. Whereas Romney—who wishes to be described as "resolute"—trailed Santorum only last week, he now enjoys a lead in all but one poll.

   Join us on Saturday. 11 a.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue, in Broad Ripple. Paul Ogden and I are co-hosts. Our guests will be Jon Easter and (I hope, unless a prior commitment of which he already has advised us materializes) Gary Welsh. We will discuss the primaries, Super Tuesday, and the campaign ahead. (And I’ll try to tell Paul we are shooting someplace else to throw him off. He doesn’t read this blog.)