Should Presidential Primaries be left to the parties?

[angus]

yes.  primaries are an internal matter for parties to sort out.  I avoid them.  As much as I hate the concept of political parties, I think it's creepy and a violation of the free association clause of the Bill of Rights for the government to outlaw Democrats and Republicans.  So they should be left up to anyone willing to associate with them and not up to the government.  Similarly, anyone who wants to be on the ballot should be allowed on the ballot.  Of course the federal government leaves ballot rules up to the states, as it should, but as tedious as it seems, I'd rather have 300 million names to choose from than have only Bush and Gore to choose from.