With everyone racing to be the first to have a primary and Feb 5 basically becoming a national primary date, the entire primary schedule has become a disaster.
And why is each state allowed to set it's date? Each state will pick the date best for them - not what is best for the party or the country. This leads to the tragedy of the commons and we are seeing that happen right now.
Why does New Hampshire get such a big say in who is nominated. New England is basically a gimme for the democrats. This would be like Mississippi deciding who the republican nominee is. It's a great deal for New Hampshire but a lousy one for the democratic party and the country. (At least Iowa is a state where the race tends to be close.)
The first 5 primaries should be set as follows. Take the 5 states with the closest votes in the last presidential election by percentage. Then schedule them out with one primary a week from the lowest to highest population state. This starts of the nomination in the states where the election will be decided - giving us a candidate best positioned to win. And by taking those 5 in population size, the process still starts with a state where candidates can sell themselves at the retail level.
This would set the primaries for 2008 as:
New Mexico
Nevada
Iowa
Wisconsin
Ohio