THE intricate, Rube Goldbergian system of primary elections clanked through its first three stages without doing fatal damage to any of the major Democratic candidates, though some were seriously hurt. How the American people were going to survive the endless springwith 20 more primaries to gowas another question. Almost weekly, it seemed, with hurdy-gurdy and bugles, politicians were "front-running" and "slumping," buried one Tuesday to be disinterred the next week in the costly, chaotic exercise of democracy. The spectacle was beginning to give some point to Arizona Representative Morris Udall's suggestion that primaries be held only on three...
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