Primary Shenanigans

Campaign Carl Cameron tells Fox News viewers that South Caroline has decided to throw the early primary schedule into disarray (h/t The Corner):

Not Since 'The Music Man' Has Iowa Been Tricked This Badly [John Podhoretz]


Carl Cameron of Fox is reporting that South Carolina will move its Republican primary to January 19, thus triggering the New Hampshire law that requires its primary to be held at least 7 days in advance of anyone else's. (Right now, the New Hampshire primary is set for January 21.) The problem is that January 12 — seven days before the new South Carolina date — is a Saturday. So presumably New Hampshire would choose to move the primary even earlier, to the 10th or the 8th.

If it held the primary on Tuesday, January 8th, Iowa is in a serious pickle. Iowa could only maintain its first-in-the-nation caucus — now scheduled for January 14 — by moving it back earlier than New Hampshire. But when? A week earlier would be New Year's Day

This also completely changes all kinds of political calculations, though right now, trying to sort through them could turn your brain to mush. Was this move done to benefit Fred Thompson by a) trying to foil Iowa and New Hampshire and, by inference, Mitt Romney and b) to lessen the importance of February 5, the so-called Super-Duper-Shmooper Tuesday that is the key to Rudy Giuliani's victory?

Or is this just an effort to assure the primacy of the South in a party whose base is in those Southern states? Or did South Carolina figure out that political reporters are bored and in need of a whole new story to write about for a week or so?

At this point the first '08 primary will probably occur right before Thanksgiving.