As expected, South Carolina political leaders aren't planning to meekly accept Florida's moving up their Presidential primary to January 29th sitting down. In particular, South Carolina Republicans have enjoyed their 'first in the South status" for nearly three decades, and are disinclined to share the spotlight - especially with a bigger state like Florida, which would likely garner the lion's share of attention. And the move to earlier dates probably won't end there. Donald Lambro explains in the Washington Times:

South Carolina Republican Chairman Katon Dawson isn't about to let Florida steal the political limelight from his state's Jan. 29 primary, so he's going hold it a week or two earlier.

Mr. Dawson's decision will preserve South Carolina's position as the first Republican presidential primary in the South, but it also will likely encroach on New Hampshire's guarded first-in-the-nation primary tentatively set for Jan. 22.

But the internecine battles of the front-loaded primaries won't stop there. Iowa's caucuses, which kick of the 2008 presidential nominating race, are set for Jan. 14. Iowans may not want to let New Hampshire move ahead of them on the primary calendar, either.

Read the whole article at the link above. SC is one of only two states where the parties set their own primary dates, so no action is needed by the legislature. Democrats may well join the move, since the contest is so heated on their side as well in this cycle.

Naturally, New Hampshire and Iowa will follow by moving their own contests earlier. The national GOP fines anyone moving their primary without approval by cutting their delegates in half, but smaller states like NH and SC don't get their influence from the delegates they award, but from the buzz they can create early in a race. Florida is a big state, but apparently feels the GOP will either back down, or the increased attention and influence will be worth it even if the penalty holds.

The move to earlier primaries will continue until some agreement is reached which all states find acceptable. The larger states, which have traditionally held their primaries later, tire of the recent trend of the nomination being effectively decided before their turn to vote. The problem is that money tends to dry up for challengers who can't demonstrate some early success, and uncommitted party officeholders and activists tend to jump on bandwagons to avoid being left behind.

A national primary, or four regional primaries instead, is a terrible idea. Having to compete in many states at once, most with expensive media markets, will mean those candidates who cannot raise large sums early are doomed. At least with the present sequence of smaller states first, candidates can show their mettle early and still have time to gain the attention and support before the meat of the schedule.

The best solution, IMHO, is to let the present early states remain so, and perhaps add Nevada to Iowa, NH, and SC so all regions are represented. Then, rotate the primary calender for the rest. Each cycle, the next primary states from the last cycle will move to the end, and everyone else will move up one week, continuing over time until every state has had the chance to be in the "next" group of primaries, then the rotation begins anew.

This isn't 1968 anymore. Then, an unknown challenger like Eugene McCarthy didn't have to raise money in $2300 chunks. He funded his challenge to the sitting President with three major donors who each gave over $1 million - one of them gave him over $3 million! Under the rules of the day, these donations didn't even have to be disclosed in a timely fashion. By today's McCain standards, that was a "corrupt" system - but does anyone remember McCarthy's nickname?

"Clean Gene." Even those who opposed his politics completely never doubted his integrity.

But those days are no more, and a candidate has to raise money from thousands of individuals to mount a credible campaign. Combine that with a national or regional primary system, and only the most prolific fundraisers will ever be heard again on the Presidential campaign stage.