Not-so-super Tuesday

Virginia may have been one of the 11 states comprising the huge delegate battle for the Republican presidential primary on so-called Super Tuesday this week, but for us here in Rappahannock County it was anything but super.

Without Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum on the primary ballot in Virginia, we missed all the suspense, drama and excitement that occurred in hard-fought, down-to-thewire states like Ohio.

But, most of all, we missed the money! Specifically, we in the media business missed all the campaign dollars spent on political advertisements. Especially missed were the huge amounts of money doled out by the “Super PACS” on attack ads that, in essence, try to convince us to dislike the very candidate who most likely best represents our self-interest.

Talk about economic stimulus! These Republican campaign dollars would surely have been spread around by Virginia’s media companies in a more efficient and job-producing way than any Democrat-inspired government spending program.

Even better, what if the media companies were cut out of the action entirely? Why are any middlemen necessary when candidates could buy votes directly?

I suspect Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, would say he’s on solid constitutional grounds in establishing a citizen’s right to vote as essentially a property right – and therefore could indeed be sold in the free market to the highest bidder.

Because Virginia is a so-called swing state, a single vote here is worth a heckuva lot more than in states that are traditionally and predictably Democratic and Republican – respectively, for example, New York and Alabama.

This swing-state status would translate into seriously big bucks for each Rappahannock County voter in this coming November’s presidential sweepstakes. So please write your congressman, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, today, and tell him you endorse this swell idea.

publisher@rappnews.com

Results of Tuesday's Republican primary – and other statewide Virginia news, along with local stories – can be found on Rappnews.com.