24

That's right, 24 is the number of states holding presidential primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5, 2008. That's nearly half of all the states. Among the 24 are Oklahoma, California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Some states are moving their primary in an effort to gain more attention and possible campaign dollars from the candidates. Here in Oklahoma, state law mandates that our primary is the first Tuesday in February. In 2004 we were part of super Tuesday, in 2008 we will be part of super duper Tuesday. It's likely that the nominees will be locked in that night giving the predictive nominees full sway before the nominating convention in summer 2008 and making this one the longest general election campaign in modern history.

Washington Post columnist David Broder comments on the "rush to judgement" here. Leave your comments on the primary process on this blog.