BLOGS: State of Disunion

Obama survives 'Super Tuesday'

By Lauren Harrell, Behind the Scences, Blogs

February 7, 2008 | noon

While the rest of the world spent Fat Tuesday whoring it up in pursuit of purple, gold and green beads, presidential candidates tried to accrue something else: delegates.

On Tuesday, 24 states took part in primaries and caucuses in hopes of becoming one step closer to nominating a candidate for the presidency of the United States.

This was the largest single-day of primaries in the history of the United States with pivotal players like California, New York and Missouri participating. Record numbers of voters came out to voice their opinion as the hype around this historic election continues to swell.

The night started off a little rough for the Republicans, as Mike Huckabee won the first primary of the day. But before you slap your head with a board in frustration, rest assured that the big winner for the night was John McCain.

Finally, after over a year of maddening debates, commercials and fallen front-runners, the Republicans seemed to have landed on a candidate for their party. And while Ann Coulter may be at home slitting her wrists, the Republicans seem to have a candidate they can rally around, for the most part.

Sure, I’ll miss the days of crazy old men sitting around trying to out-Reagan each other, but it’s good to see them finally take some direction. Maybe next decade, Mitt.

Things were not so clear, however, on the blue side of the aisle. The race for the democratic nomination remains too close to call. Hillary Clinton has a slight lead over Barack Obama in the delegate count.

Particularly telling were the results in Missouri, a bellwether state whose winner has gone on to win the presidential election since 1904. Here, Obama barely scraped out a victory with 49 percent of the votes over Clinton’s 48 percent.

Although many people have scored the night as a win for Clinton, we have to look also at how much Obama accomplished. He won in states all across the country, including the South, Midwest and even a few in New England. As his appeal to varying groups of people continues to grow, Clinton’s well-established political machine will have to fight even harder than it did before.

So what is my political forecast for the country? I think Punxsutawney Phil said it best: six more weeks of stormy and bitter (political) weather.