Duo perspective on
Super Tuesday results
By:
Katherine Davis, Political Columnist
Super Tuesday for the Democratic Party was interesting
to say the least. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came
into the big day with huge numbers and very close poll results.
The first state reporting was Georgia, with a win for Obama.
Although the Obama camp expected him to win in the south with
the high African-American population, the pundits were not
oblivious to the reality that one of the southernmost states in
the Union voted an African-American man for the Democratic
candidate for president. The night was filled with
history-making statistics just like these, with Clinton
finishing strong among blue-collar workers in Massachusetts and
Tennessee. Many expected Clinton to take Massachusetts due to
its proximity to New York, her home state; however, Obama had
some strong supporters in Massachusetts. Senator John Kerry
endorsed Obama, as did the popular Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy
even traveled to California to campaign for Obama there as well.
Unfortunately, Obama lost both Massachusetts and California.
Throughout the
night, Obama and Clinton remained in a very close race, not only
in actual numbers of states and delegates but in numbers of
voters as well. Very few of the states that came in had
decisive leads for either candidate, and most were 48% to 49%,
coming out to a difference as low as 1600 votes in some places.
When Obama finally won Missouri, it was a much needed victory
and gave his supporters a sigh of relief. Clinton rejoiced in
her own victory in California, which put her ahead in delegate
numbers. As far as distribution of states, there were no
shocking surprises: Obama won Illinois (as was predicted), and
Clinton won both New York and Arkansas.
The most
interesting issues of the night were issues of race and gender.
The pundits showed poll numbers revealing that, in California,
Obama did very well among both white and African-American males
and females, but Clinton took nearly 75% of the Latino vote. In
a state that is heavily populated by Latinos, Clinton emerged
the victor. Many experts argued over the African-American
women’s vote and with whom the numbers would be the highest. If
Super Tuesday is an indication of the future, African-American
women voters are voting along race lines not gender lines, as
they stay in the Obama camp.
No matter which
candidate one is supporting in this race, we are all witnessing
history. It is more than just we humble political geeks that can
take joy in this contest. All Americans can take joy in
watching an election that is infused with passion, emotion,
intelligence and, finally, diversity. No clear winner emerged
from the Democratic camp last night, but that just makes it all
the more exciting. With Clinton at a total of 845 delegates
earned and Obama with 765 earned, there are only 2025 needed to
take the nomination in Denver later this year. The fight is not
over by a long shot, and we should all be proud of a political
environment that allows us to participate in such a spectacular
battle.
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By:
Benjamin Sauer, Political Columnist
The
Grand Old Party has had a decidedly interesting presidential
primary this year. When the season started, the GOP presidential
field was brimming with presidential hopefuls, which is in stark
contrast to previous years, where a clear frontrunner was
established early in the season. The great number of candidates
had actually fractured the usually unified Republican base:
liberals flocked to Rudolph Giuliani, moderates to John McCain,
Evangelicals to Mike Huckabee, libertarians to Ron Paul, and Fred
Thompson and Mitt Romney split the conservatives. Duncan Hunter’s
support was mostly imaginary.
Because of such fractures in the base, no one candidate was able
to establish a solid base before the start of the caucuses and
primaries, and several startling surprises have occurred. Huckabee
upset Romney in Iowa and, drawing upon the Evangelical bloc,
amassed a collection of Southern states on Super Tuesday. McCain,
whose campaign came back from the dead to win New Hampshire, has
clearly established himself as the frontrunner. Giuliani, who
campaigned more for the Presidency of Florida than of the United
States, never managed to win a single state, even though early
polls showed him with a commanding lead. Thompson was unable to
transform the tremendous anticipation for his campaign into
anything resembling an actual campaign. Paul was able to establish
an excellent grassroots organization but was never able to capture
the vote of usual Republican primary voters, even being booed
during several debates. Romney had the greatest treasure chest of
the candidates, but he was never able to overcome his early upsets
and the anti-Mormon feelings of many Republican Evangelicals,
along with his spotched conservative record. As for Hunter, you
can’t win primaries with imaginary voters.
After
this past Super Tuesday, the frontrunner has solidly become
Arizona Senator John McCain. While normally playing the role of
GOP whipping boy, McCain has led a remarkable campaign, garnering
the important independent votes. Sporting the endorsements of
Giuliani and Romney, who pulled out at the Conservative Political
Action Conference on Thursday, McCain has basically secured
himself the nomination and must now face the arduous task of
uniting a fractured Republican base. While Romney could have
fought to secure the nomination himself, as he was booed at CPAC
when he made his announcement, he stated party unity in face of a
strong Democratic nominee to be the reason, believing that
forestalling a national campaign for more party infighting would
only bolster the Democratic party’s chances of winning the White
House. Thus, while I dislike Romney’s decision, his decision to
endorse McCain and assist in unifying the base will help
Republicans retain the presidency.
It is
time for Republicans to join John McCain in his fight for the
presidency. Any further infighting is only going to harm the party
and bolster the eventual Democratic nominee. This way we may be
able to see a President McCain and a Vice President Mitt Romney.
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