Super Tuesday Approaches.
John Edwards is out of the race.
Rudy Giuliani is out of the race (and we hardly even got to see him run!).
It’s down to two candidates on the Democratic side, who even now are squaring off in possibly their last debate, and four on the Republican side, though John McCain and Mitt Romney are far in the lead—it wouldn’t be impossible for them to get caught, but it’d be hard.
Will we know who the nominees are after Tuesday? Oh, my earlier article about the primary process seems so naïve. Still, there is a chance that one candidate will make a sweep of Super Tuesday (Tsunami Tuesday, Super Duper Tuesday, whatever dumb name the pundits use this week—my favorite is “Ballot Bowl” on CNN for its pure desperate attempt to make voting sound enough like football to get the majority of Americans to care).
It could happen. Or it could stretch on into April and even May—even to the conventions.
The endorsements are racking up, particularly behind Barack Obama and John McCain. When Giuliani dropped out, he immediately backed McCain, and Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed McCain today as well. (It is still very odd to me that Arnold Schwarzenegger somehow has political clout, let alone governs a huge state.)
Behind Obama now stands Ted Kennedy, younger brother of Bobby and John and member of the Senate for so long that he’s forgotten what it was like not to be. In addition, he got the support of rising star Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas and the person chosen by the Democratic Party to give its response to the State of the Union address.
Of course, the other candidates have plenty of endorsements, supporters, and money, but Obama came out ahead in the money race as well, announcing that his campaign raised $32 million in the month of January. Clearly, whatever happens in the Democratic race, Obama is now the certified rock star of the party.
I almost hope it’s over after Super Tuesday, even though I bemoan the disenfranchisement of millions of Americans whose states vote later, because I’m sick and tired of listening to pundits make sweeping generalizations about the categories of people who make up the Democratic Party (and sometimes the Republican Party as well), and I am especially tired of hearing the question “Who are the white men going to vote for?”
We here at Kaffeine Buzz do not believe that you choose your candidate by race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or any other pigeonhole you could stick them into. That said, part of me really enjoys the fact that right now, a woman and a black man are vying to become the nominee of a major political party for the first time. We are ready. No more excuses.
We encourage you to get involved by caucusing this Tuesday, February 5. If you have not experienced this before, check out our article “What the Hell is a Caucus Anyway?”
The Obama website also has a really helpful caucus page for each state, and for Colorado it is http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/cocaucuscenter. It helps you to find your caucus location, learn how the caucus process works, get a ride to your caucus, get help with Caucus-Night childcare, and more. More than anything, you need to know to GET THERE ON TIME at 6:30pm.
Reader mail can go to sarah.jaffe-at-gmail.com. Please include “Political Buzz” in the subject line or it may go to junk mail!
