preeminence

Looks like the Democrats are really working for a new strategy in 2008:

Democrats are laying aside the debate over issues and philosophy and turning to something more prosaic — rejiggering the political calendar — as a way to boost the party's White House prospects in 2008.

Barring a last-minute shift, Democratic leaders meeting here are expected to add Nevada and South Carolina to the states that hold early primaries, alongside perennials Iowa and New Hampshire.

The move is the main business at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting, which opened Thursday in Chicago. It would be the most significant change in the presidential nominating process in years, and hasten the front-loading that has already transformed the contest from a months-long slog into a sprint lasting just a few weeks.

Many political observers in Iowa and New Hampshire bitterly oppose the change; there is even talk of pushing their balloting into late 2007 to leapfrog any interlopers and preserve New Hampshire's historic preeminence. The proposal also has produced more than a few knocks on Nevada and the louche life associated with Las Vegas.

"It is said that the Democratic Party has a moral values problem," Ken Bode, a veteran political analyst now teaching at DePauw University in Indiana, wrote in a recent Indianapolis Star commentary. "Adding images of flying dice and spinning slot machines with the surrounding sex industry isn't likely to help."

But leaders of the national party appear undeterred.