Tuesday, the state of Missouri held its primary for the 2012 Presidential Election.

Thing is, it didn’t matter.

The state will hold a caucus in March, which is when its delegates will be awarded to one of the candidates.

All we did in Missouri this week was waste a lot of time and money for a lot of people.

And just to find out Rick Santorum is leading in our home state.

$8-million completely down the drain. Talk about a kick in the gut.

Imagine the good that money could have done for higher education, hell, for anything productive in the state.

How many programs on the chopping block at Missouri Southern could have been made completely free with even just a cut of that money? How many majors would it have saved if we could have just gotten a pinch?

It’s not like it’s exactly a secret that the budget in this state is a problem, especially in higher education.

We suppose it just would have made too much sense for the money spent on a pointless, and disappointing, primary to have gone to something worthwhile like Missouri’s public universities’ funding.

Sure, maybe we’re playing the “poor me (or us)” card, but it is endlessly frustrating to see money go to waste given the circumstances our state, and University, has fallen under.

$8-million just seems like a whole lot of money to us.