Presidential Race Heads into Overtime

Super Tuesday was supposed to be a decisive day for both parties, the great national primary that would catapult a clear front runner for both parties, and more likely than not, end the 2008 primary season.  It did not happen that way.

Although on the Republican side John McCain won the most states and has the look of a front runner, his nomination by his party is far from locked up.  The establishment of the party and the voices of the conservative wing still require convincing on McCain. Thanks to Mike Huckabee, who continues to look more like a stalking horse candidate than a viable one for the Presidency, Mitt Romney’s wins were small and for the most part insignificant compared to McCain’s.

The Democrats are no closer to selecting a nominee than they were 24 hours ago.  Although Hillary Clinton took California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, Barack Obama won Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota and Illinois, showing strength in non-south states.

While most pundits originally saw Super Tuesday as the last meaningful day of the race, for both parties it now continues, and it is now possible to consider that for either party the race will not end until the conventions last this summer - a dream for political junkies.  There hasn’t been a meaningful convention in US politics for at least a generation as they have morphed into made-for-TV spectacles.  The possibility now exists that they will both be real conventions, and only then will we know who the party nominees will be.