The results are in from last Tuesday’s primaries. “Super Tuesday,” as it is commonly referred to, with its primaries from 24 different states, had a few surprises this year. To start off, there was a significantly larger number of 18-24 year old voters than in the 2000 election. Why the sudden increase in young voter turnout for a primary? Despite the “Rock the Vote” campaign in the 2000 election, the increase is contributed to more affable candidates who relate better to young voters than in the last election.

One of these candidates is Barack Obama. He surprised quite a few political pundits when he took over the polls on Super Tuesday. Winning 14 states over Sen. Hillary Clinton’s nine, Obama is beginning to take over the leading position for the Democratic Party.

Clinton was previously on top, but now seems to be losing some popularity. It is possible that voters in the earlier primaries simply had different opinions of who they thought should be our next President, but others speculate it may be for different reasons.

A recent story surfacing from an Iowa cleaning company might be one of the contributing factors. According to Rich Reese, the owner of the cleaning company, the Clinton campaign has been delinquent on paying their bills, which has now accumulated to over $7,500. Voters may be feeling unwilling to trust such a candidate who supposedly has had recent success in raising campaign funds.

On the other side of the race, even bigger upsets ensued. McCain lead the GOP with nine states, Romney a close second with seven and Huckabee trailing with five. Coming as a surprise to many, after Super Tuesday’s results, Mitt Romney decided to call it quits on his campaign and resigned from the race. His reasons were that he felt he could not win and would in time only weaken the Republican Party’s chance of winning the election.

Romney boldly stated, “I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” referring to a democratic candidate taking office. Romney’s decision upset his supports and many people within the GOP.

The forerunner now looks to be Sen. John McCain. Although his support base is growing, some view McCain as a “conservative maverick” and fear giving him the Republican Ticket. Huckabee sees Romney’s decision as an opportunity for him to rise in the polls, but he has quite a way to go to take the lead over McCain.

Whoever earns a spot on the ballot of the 2008 election, it is sure to be quite a fight.With this recent turbulence on both sides, it seems as if the election is almost up for grabs. Both parties need to look at who they can best represent themselves with, and who will be the stronger candidate. Our nation’s future will be decided in these next few months, with four candidates who hold four drastically different views about how to lead our country.

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