|
WASHINGTON: A White House race which has exhausted all superlatives
shatters another record on “Super Tuesday” February 5, when 24
states vote in the greatest one-day nominating onslaught in US
history.
The most expensive, intense, prolonged and
unpredictable race ever is already certain to break one glass
ceiling—as Democrats will eventually pick the first woman, or
black presidential nominee.
But barring a major surprise, even “Super
Tuesday” is unlikely to install Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama
just yet: their close state-by-state race looks set to go on until
at least March.
John McCain, however, could all but claim the
Republican presidential spot on Tuesday, and complete one of the
most unlikely comebacks in US political lore.
After a clutch of single-state contests,
“Super Tuesday” embraces voters from across racial, religious,
social and income barriers.
States up for grabs include liberal
Massachusetts, conservative southern Georgia, frigid Alaska and
parched Arizona and anything-goes California.
Twenty-two Democratic states vote, there are 21
Republicans contests, and 19 states hold both.
Come Wednesday morning, the Republican picture
will likely be clearest, as most states award delegates to the
party’s national nominating convention on a winner-take-all basis.
Democrats use a labyrinthine formula of
proportionally doling out delegates, which has strategists
cherry-picking wherever they can garner an advantage.
Sources in the Clinton and Obama camps say they
don’t expect a definitive result, setting up a delegate chase,
which theoretically, could end up at a contested convention, in
Denver in August.
The Illinois senator had most of the good
storylines going into “Super Tuesday,” surfing on high-profile
endorsements and a mind-blowing $32-million fundraising blitz in
January.
The two great dynasties of Democratic politics,
the Clintons and the Kennedys meanwhile feuded after Senator Edward
Kennedy draped the aura of his assassinated brother John’s
presidential legacy over Obama.
But new national polls Saturday showed Clinton
with a slim lead, and she was up in some key states, even as she
defended her ex-president husband Bill’s hardball tactics.
“Super Tuesday” will ask Democrats
nationwide to choose either a Clinton restoration, or a new
generation of Obama leadership.
They must pick the soaring, soothing politics of
Obama, or Clinton’s gritty, incremental change and vow to battle
anything Republicans can throw at her.
Obama must prove he can expand his power base of
African Americans and well-heeled white voters into Clinton’s
bastion of the working class, women and Hispanics.
The support of John Edwards is also up for grabs
after he quit the race last week.
The unprecedented “Super Tuesday” challenge
has campaigns scrambling to launch advertising blitzes across
multiple markets, imposing never-before-seen funding demands.
Polls show Clinton leading in California, New
Jersey, and New York. She also has high hopes in Arkansas where her
husband was governor.
-- AFP
|
