Would it be advantageous for a major political party to scrap the primaries?

Politics & Elections
1

The presidential primaries have three big disadvantages for any political party using the primary system:

  1. They cause the candidates to have to say extreme things, in order to prove their liberal or conservative credentials - words that will come back to bite them in the general election;

  2. They cause divisiveness within one’s own camp - there was ill-will between some Hillary and Obama supporters in 2008 even long after the primaries ended;

  3. They often don’t lead to the most “electable” candidate garnering the nomination. Neither McCain nor Romney were very electable in 2008 or 2012, for instance. Success in the primaries doesn’t mean success in the general election.

Therefore it seems that the first major political party to ditch the primaries and have its candidate appointed by a wise, pragmatic internal committee - selected for having the most “electability in the general election” - will immediately hold a significant advantage over its opponent that still uses primaries.
Sure, there will be anger and frustration within one’s own ranks over ditching the primary system, but the vast majority of voters would still vote for their party’s appointed candidate on Election Day anyway. And even in a primary system, many voters don’t get to see their preferred candidate rise to the top anyway.

2

McCain and Romney were not elected. However, they were by far the most electable candidates the Republicans had running.

3

If the corrupt committee selects a person undesired by their base then they’ll lose them altogether. The parties count on a large percentage of their core members to come out for the winning candidate in the general election. Take away the perception that there was a fair process in the selection and the loyalty will be gone.

For other positions this proposal is often the de facto mode of operation. Committees often control who may run in a primary and who the winner will be, it’s very difficult to run against the local party structure when they are well entrenched. In local primaries the entire turnout may consist of party leaders and their close friends and family, a dark horse may have no chance.