The Primaries are over.

Clinton dropped out today. The Primary season is over. But it leaves me wondering when the US ‘Primary Season’ will adopt a more appropriate title.

A ’season’, so the dictionary tells me, is ‘one of four periods of the year, beginning astronomically at an equinox or solstice’. In its old form – running from January to June – primary season was already stretching the definition but, given that many tropical regions have only two official seasons, ‘the hot’ and ‘the wet’, I accept that there is precedent for dividing the year only into two. Which half is the hot and which the wet is, of course, open to some debate.

Back in April, Clinton remarked that this race is the longest thing she’s ever done, ‘longer even than having a baby’. And, while we might question the appropriateness of her chosen comparator, she is substantially correct, having campaigned since January 2007. Seven ‘traditional’ seasons, three ‘tropical’ seasons, or the time required for two complete pregnancies will have now past before the ‘primary season’ draws finally to a close.

I think the major parties need to take their cue from Major League Baseball, who sensibly added a Canadian team, thus lending some credence to their otherwise implausible claims to the status of ‘World Series’. Holding the primaries in Greenland is one possible solution – thus simulating one long political winter. A desert island is another option, if summer is preferred. Candidates could duke it out on the sand, like the cast members of Lost, or the characters in a bizarre sequel to Lord of the Flies. At least this way we could be fooled into thinking it was still one season, even if that season turned out to be one long winter of discontent.

~ by bsuryab on June 7, 2008.