Our neighbor, New Hampshire, is indulging in primary one-upmanship by moving its presidential primary up to January 8 to beat Michigan's January 15 date.

For Boston, this means an endless parade of presidential candidates on television, a lot sooner than we're used to now that the states are trying to get a slice of the money the primaries will bring.

The early primaries force the candidates to put the pedal to the medal and automatically grant an advantage to those who have the momentum. Even if someone with less money and less recognition would be a better president, we'd never know it. It takes money and brand recognition to secure votes between now and early January. The Globe quoted statements from Mitt Romney, Chris Dodd, and John Edwards saying how nice it was that New Hampshire would be the first, but the subliminal message of their statement is, "Oh, crap."

Blue Mass Group lists the primaries between the Iowa caucus on January 3 and "super-duper Tuesday" on February 5.

Even though the individual primaries are getting loads of hype, hardly anyone will notice because the date is so soon after the holidays. People will be getting over their holiday hangovers, and, as much as we want to talk about how noble it is to vote rain or shine, people in general prefer to vote when it is convenient. Early January is not convenient, neither for the candidates or the voters. How will candidates wedge in their ads among all the other ads?

Image from answers.com.