Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger

    To vote in the Republican Party’s presidential primary on Feb. 12, a registered Virginia voter simply must swallow a little poi, or “pledge of intent.“

  “I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for President” is the poi, which is not exactly a loyalty oath but may deter independents and others from venturing into the GOP booth that day.

    Primary turnouts, which have been small enough of late, may shrink a bit but that may be the intent of the poi—a taro root concoction mixed with water and “slightly fermented.“ Those who take it are pure, not the merely interested or slightly intrigued.

    The GOP can’t be entirely serious about keeping Democrats out of their Feb. 12 primary as a sole reason for taking the poi as the Dems have their own large field of presidential hopefuls to entice them into a pledgeless primary in which Barack Obama stands a good chance of edging out Hillary Clinton.

    The poi may be the next step in killing Virginia’s open primaries—those elections run by the state but only of enough interest to drag out party activists to vote in contests that non-party potential voters greet with large yawns.

    The GOP deserves credit for finding a way to ensure party primary purity with a poi designed not to appeal to the hoi polloi.