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If Barack and Mitt and Hillary and Rudy and Bill and John and John and everyone else in the chorus line of "U.S. Presidency: The Musical," wanted to prove their worth as a headliner, they'd fix this mess we call our primary system.

You may have missed it last week, seeing as how the story ranked just below the real news - Flash, Joe Biden talks too much! Flash, the Republicans all want to be the next Ronald Reagan! - but Florida just decided to move up its primary date by a couple months.

The Hanging Chad State, which has already contributed so much to our democracy in recent years, is switching its primary to Jan. 29, 2008. That way, Florida's voters figure to have a much bigger impact on the races in both parties.

Florida's move steals some of the thunder from Iowa and Nevada, which are holding too-early caucuses/primaries on that date so they can exercise a little muscle with New Hampshire (Jan. 22).

Florida's move virtually silences the great state of South Carolina, whose Feb. 2 primary is losing its clout. Indignant South Carolina officials promise they won't take this lying down - no, suh! - and plan to move up their primary so their voters are the first in the South to help anoint a front-runner.

OK, so you see the theme now. Every state figures earlier is better, even if that means primaries start by, oh, next Thursday - and the "election season" between the two eventual nominees becomes a yearlong dirge.

The candidates, of course, are notable by their silence on the issue, presumably because they're trying to pack for January in both Manchester and Miami.

Nice leadership. Very presidential.

I offer this idea in hopes of improving the process - or, at the very least, to keep it from getting worse. It's not quantum physics. You probably have a better notion, to which I say, "Great."

Here goes:

Let's assume, for a moment, that New Hampshire and Iowa are adamant about their historical roles as First to Vote. Fine. Every four years, let's give them the first Tuesday in February to anoint a front-runner, or give the boot to a Howard Dean-alike.

After that, though, I propose we stagger the primaries - roughly eight per week, for six weeks, through the early spring.

In essence: six Super Tuesdays.

My plan tries to balance regions, population, diversity and distance. It's also predicated on the share-and-share-alike principle - the states that are first up in Õ08 would go to the back of the line in 2012, with the next row moving up. That way, every state - California to Maine - gets to be Florida in one lifetime.

Let's say this started next year. Here's what my '08 calendar would look like after Iowa and New Hampshire:

Feb. 5: New Mexico, Arizona, New York, Vermont, Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas.

Feb. 12: Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida and Mississippi.

Feb. 19: Washington, Montana, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia, North Carolina.

Feb. 26: Colorado, Utah, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, North Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana.

March 4: Idaho, Oregon, Maryland, West Virginia, South Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas, Tennessee.

March 11: Hawaii, Nevada, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginia.

There are a few geographic anomalies and political realities for which I'm sure I haven't accounted. But my plan keeps in place a semblance of regional muscle, saves the candidates some traveling money (like that matters) and still gives voters the chance to consider an upstart candidate who could stay alive long enough to merit national consideration.

That can't happen with the system we're constructing now. No way. As it stands now, this thing is done by Valentine's Day, long before we should have two finalists for the biggest job in the world.

Thanks to the Floridas and the South Carolinas that would one-up them, this has become a one-deck, winner-takes-all-game of Texas Hold 'Em.

Or in this case, New Hampshire Hold 'Em.

We need better. We deserve better.