Himanshu Shekhar
This is the first Tuesday of February, the 5th day of the month, when a majority of the 24 American states held their primaries together. The candidates for the Democratic Party tried their fortunes in 22 states and those of the Republican Party in 21.
Is Super Tuesday decisive?
Not technically; but around 51% of the delegates are decided on this day. In recent elections, the candidates for the two parties have been decided from the result of the primaries of this day much before the party’s general convention.
Historical Lessons
In 1976, the Republican Party candidate was not clear till the end. Eventually, General Ford managed to edge out Ronald Reagan at the Republican’s national convention by 1,187 votes to 1,070 votes. Hence, to believe that this Tuesday will be the deciding Tuesday might prove to be incorrect.
Shifting battle?
Poll campaign managers and close aides of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton believe that their contest could extend well beyond Super Tuesday.
After today, Clinton has the support of 845 delegates to Obama’s 765, On the Republican side McCain enjoys the support of 613 delegates to Romney’s 269 & Huckabee’s 190.
What happens after the primaries?
Once the battle of primaries is over, each state party will pick a delegation or a group of people to represent the states preferences. They will participate in the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug 25-28 and the Republican’s convention at Minneapolis; St Paul’s from Sept 1-4, this year and decides on a Presidential candidate. To win a nomination for race to White House a candidate must be selected by a majority of all state delegates.
Deciding factor
In 1924, the Democratic convention went on for 17 days with 103 rounds of voting before John Davis was selected as nominee. In 1952 Adlai Stevenson got the democratic nomination only after three rounds of voting. If no clear winner emerges between Obama and Clinton in the primaries, as the latest results suggests, the battleground might well shift to the convention.
