Super Tuesday has come and gone, with a topsy-turvy week of delegate-snatching by all candidates.
Much to John McCain’s surprise and delight, his closest combatant for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, withdrew so as to strengthen the party. Romney withdrew because he wants the GOP to build a steadfast reputation for the coming onslaught of the Democratic nominee come this fall.
This leaves McCain to choose a running-mate to balance out his ticket. Maybe Romney, maybe Mike Huckabee-both well-regarded by the conservative base, but not enough to be its nominee. Expect a religious conservative so as to balance the maverick title McCain carries into the election.
More murky and muddled is the Democratic primary. Barack Obama is neck and neck with Hillary Clinton, though he holds a slight edge in the number of delegates. However, neither potential candidate appears poised to secure the required 2,025 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination.
Folks, this is where the “politicking” of politics comes to the forefront. Unbeknownst to most voters, there looms a group of “superdelegates” within the Democratic Party. Superdelegates are delegates whose seats are based solely on status, as former officials, elected and otherwise, within the Democratic Party.
There are approximately 796 superdelegates and, in a race this close, where every vote counts, they will be courted with a fervor unseen in your lifetime.
The last time the superdelegates decided a nominee was in 1984, when they swung the vote to Walter Mondale instead of Gary Hart. Mondale went on to lose by the largest margin in history Ronald Reagan.
How it came to pass that the superdelegates, or “king makers,” as they have been called, became so important is due to the influence of Florida and Michigan.
Ego is huge in the political game, and there are many who cannot stomach that a hayseed state such as Iowa has so much pull in the nomination of candidates. As such, in what was thought a brilliant stroke, Florida and Michigan moved their primaries ahead of Iowa’s. Candidates and parties, not wanting to anger millions of future voters, reprimanded both states by eliminating their delegates. Clinton won these 350 delegates as she headed toward 2,025 votes.
In a nod to fairness, the party continues to disallow these votes no matter how much Clinton protests because Obama’s name was not on the Michigan ballot, nor did he campaign in Florida.
All of this brings us back to the king makers at the nominating convention in Miami.
Clinton and Obama will now campaign to ambitious party insiders. Currently discussed issues of universal healthcare, campaign reform, global warming and social security will take a backseat in this new delegate derby.
Meanwhile, the king makers will have their own concerns in mind: construction boondoggles in their home states, federal buildings and the jobs they bring, judgeships on circuit courts and ambassadorships. The mud-slinging seen on television and in the newspapers is wiped away by a sound bite the next day. This is where the candidates get dirt under their fingernails as they claw for votes.
In the end, the money line has to be Clinton. Though Obama shouts about change and how he is an outsider, he won’t get the needed votes because he is on the outside of the beltway in D.C. Clinton campaigned for Nixon, and her husband is a guy named Bill Clinton, former President of the United States and a superdelegate himself.
If this sounds familiar, maybe you remember Florida in 2000 and how it wasn’t over until someone’s brother counted some of the ballots.
Years of currying favor will come to roost for Hillary Clinton, and she will square off in the fall against McCain. It should be a super contest.
Lew Griffith is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
