The American presidential primary system has degenerated into a “kind of ‘American Idol’ exercise” where unqualified candidates can be nominated and even make it to the White House, an author told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.
“This is the most important job in the world and it puts an emphasis on novelty and good looks and the pompadour hair and all that stuff,” saod journalist and historian Paul Delmont.
Delmont, author of “The Great Liberal Death Wish: Four Ways the Political Establishment is Failing America,” argues that only half a party’s delegates should be awarded during the primary contests, while the other half should remain uncommitted.
Watch the exclusive interview here.
“Since John F. Kennedy, we’ve made television and the primaries and the debates, which are kind of an ‘American Idol’ exercise, more important than leadership coming out of the political establishment, coming out of Congress the way it does in parliamentary countries,” Delmont said.
Delmont told Newsmax.TV the conventions should once again become “the decisive function for nomination.”
“That way, you wouldn’t have amateurs like Barack Obama,” he said.
“John Edwards is the perfect example of somebody who should never have been considered for the presidency, and yet he was a vice-presidential candidate and he was considered a viable presidential candidate later on,” added Delmont. Edwards was John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 and ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. The former North Carolina senator’s career was finally torpedoed when was revealed that he had fathered a child with a mistress while is wife was battling terminal cancer.
As for this year’s election, Delmont said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney needs to spell out his plan to revive the economy.
“Obama is anti-business so he’s not going to do any good. I would like to see Romney just tell the truth, have a vision for America, be optimistic, and avoid rhetoric. He can’t give the stump speech all the time,” Demont said.
“He’s got to look America in the eye and say, ‘This is what the problem is. This is what I would do about it.’ He’s got to be specific. And he can’t be on the defensive,” the author said.
“Romney cannot be distracted by these really dishonest charges that are coming out of the Chicago political machine to help Obama win,” he said. “The people have to know the facts and the truth.”
Delmont said that neither major party has come up with a workable plan to staunch the flood of illegal immigrants entering the country. He also favors reducing the number of legal immigrants allowed in. Most of them, he said, are not being blended into the melting pot. And the great majority of them are voting Democratic.
“So what we’re essentially doing is we’re pouring in Democratic voters by half a million or more a year and they are saving the Democratic Party at the very time that the Democratic Party is losing the support of Americans born in America. And if we continue to do this, the Democratic Party will be the dominant party very quickly,” he said.
“This could be the election that is the turning point toward a permanent domination of American politics by the Democratic Party,” Delmont said.
Delmont said the GOP needs to be more inclusive.
“They can’t be a party of white males. We have to reach out to Hispanics and blacks,” he said. “We have to reach out and Asians would be the perfect group. Asians have strong family values. They have very low divorce rates. They have very, very low illegitimacy rates. They have very high entrepreneurial activities. They are very competitive. They have very high achievement in higher education. So they are naturals for the Republican Party but they’re voting 70 and 80 percent Democrat and 87 percent of Asians born in America voted for Obama. That’s atrocious.”
Delmont said that America needs a strong Congress, but a bipartisan one that can accomplish things and work with the president.
“Both Clinton and Reagan got a lot done even though they had to work with the opposition in charge of one or both houses of Congress,” Delmont said.
He said the framers of the Constitution intended for Congress to be “the most powerful branch of government,” followed by the presidency and then courts. The courts today have more power “because Congress let them have it,” he said.
“So we need much better people in Congress,” Delmont said. “I mean when you look at leaders Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner ... I mean none of them inspire confidence, let’s be honest about it.”
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