Political Hangover

Other titles: Clark Kent Wednesday, The Race Continues..., and So Do We Get a Refund?

Alright so Super Tuesday is over and here's a lowly Political Science/Master's of Public Affairs opinion on what's going on and what we learned from yesterday's Super Duper Outta this World Tuesday.

First we learned that we still don't know who will be either party's nomination, however we did see that McCain is coming out strong and can be truly called the "front-runner." Within the Republican party we also found out that 'conservatives' weren't sure who to vote for. The exit polls show that Romney and Huckabee were both fighting for a "run to the right" on conservative issues and throughout his career McCain has been a 'maverick' and a 'moderate,' tending to vote only slightly to the middle and being on the right. While McCain's centrist attitude definately is inspiring to much of the moderate electorate, including myself, it may keep him from earning the party's nomination.

When it comes to the Democrats, Super Tuesday showed that the fight isn't over and that there will still be plenty more to come when it comes to future races. This is pretty well exhibited by the exit polls and their numbers. Ann Curry shows a stat on the exit polls that says that 70% of Democrats would be happy with either Obama or Hillary. It will come down to the wire and we might actually have a reason for having a convention on the Democratic side.

Overall I think that the data supports that the country is ready for change and they are probably hoping that a democrat can bring it about. If you look at the overall primaries from yesterday you can see that the numbers voting in the Democractic party outnumbered those in the Republican side. However, you must also take into consideration that many states, like Missouri, have open primaries where regardless of party affiliation you can vote in either primary, so the numbers may be a little skewed.

The exciting thing for me is that the turnout was huge and that implies that the dialogue in the country is picking up. Call me a "Cockeyed Optimist," which for those of you who know me is probably the right call...but if the dialogue continues then I firmly believe that we as an American people can solve the problems that ail this country and if we're lucky make the world a better place.

Final thoughts, dialogue is good, and the votes show that the country is ready for a discussion on issues and problems that plague this nation. It won't be easy but at least there is hope for a better country and a better future, and as long as there is still a race for the "highest office in the land" there will be more dialogue more suggestions, more discussion, more solutions and less apathy and more interaction and concern. It's a great time to be an American and a great time to "be the change you want to see in the world."