Muleskinner

Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Opinion

Commentary: Raghvendra Singh [Click to enlarge]

Many of us presumed "Super Tuesday" would decide the nominations for the 2008 election. Little did we know, the battle for the 43rd president of the United States was just beginning.

While there is probably concern from the conservatives in the Republican Party that John McCain is their nominee, a civil war has surely erupted in the Democratic ring where Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton aren't just looking to win states and delegates, they are looking to win "super delegates."

Last year, Vietnam veteran John McCain's future looked uncertain. But recently, McCain has been winning delegates and is closest in the race to becoming the nominee of the GOP.

Yet, McCain remains a distant cousin to the core of the conservative base. And while the Republican Party may be much closer in choosing their nominee for the 2008 election, the question remains whether the conservatives are ready to choose McCain, who has often voted against his own party in the senate during cases such as the Bush tax cuts while sponsoring the McCain-Kennedy Z-immigration Visa Bill which would have made several thousand illegal immigrants in the United States legal.

As for Mike Huckabee, the lone social conservative in the GOP race, nomination seems far from possible if he uses "miracles" rather than math, to calculate his campaign strategy.

On the Democratic side, things don't look any better with Clinton and Obama hunting down "super delegates" in case the nomination selection goes to the Democratic Convention.

Although Obama has secured more states than Clinton, with comfortable wins in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine, the real question remains: Can he win the Latino votes in Texas and the blue-collar worker votes in Ohio on March 4?

As for Clinton, things seem to be getting worse with the loss of money and state support and the resignation of her chief campaign manager. The heat seems to have gotten to the Clintons, though it's never really over for the Clinton political machine, which has loaned its own campaign $5 million, leading to questions in the media of where the cash came from.

While American elections usually have to do with the battle between Republicans and Democrats, the 2008 election has given the country a new perspective on the fight for nominations.

On one side, we have conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter calling McCain the nominee that will tear down the GOP, and core evangelicals like James Dobson backing Huckbee. This Republican fight is setting up a bloody, dirty war.

While aspects such as race, gender, age, economic status and experience affecting the Democratic nomination, poll pundits throughout the country have been wondering whether the Democratic nomination will turn out to be an election by the people or a selection by the "super delegates."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools