Our good-humored protest against the tyranny of the Iowa caucuses went off pretty smoothly Tuesday.
Delawareans battled cold, wind and our online registration system to cast a virtual ballot on their home computers for the person they think should win the presidency.
We don't think Iowans are cringing in fear about being overshadowed by the First State Virtual Caucus in 2016, but those who took part in the Delaware version had some fun.
And it was a good way to make a point about the insanity of having Iowa lead off the selection of a president for the entire country.
Our motto has been:
We're the First State. Why shouldn't we go first?
Well, even if other states think they should be first, the point is that Iowa is not a good representation of all 50 states.
We won't claim Delaware is that representative state, but we're a lot closer.
Nevertheless, our ballot reflected the one in Iowa.
On the Democratic side, Barack Obama received 95 votes. He has no opposition.
On the Republican side, where there was a contest, the breakdown was more interesting.
The voting went as follows:
Mitt Romney 67
Ron Paul 50
Newt Gingrich 36
Jon Huntsman 30
Rick Santorum 22
Rick Perry 11
Michele Bachmann 9
Gary Johnson 3
Buddy Roemer 2
Of course, the battle for the nomination is not over just because Delawareans virtually spoke.
We imagine it will linger on for a few more months, perhaps until April when Delawareans and other voters around the country can have a say on what's left of the field.
Perhaps.
And that just reinforces our point.
There should be a better way of picking a presidential nominee.
Iowa is first because of an accident of history. George McGovern won more delegates than Edmund Muskie there in 1972.
That surprised the reporters who were looking for a good story about non-primary states. Remember, it was the Democratic Party's McGovern-Fraser Commission report that really screwed up the nominating process in the wake of the 1968 convention disaster in Chicago.
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