Gearing Up for Super Tuesday

The rivalry for the presidential race escalated over the weekend as both the Democrat and Republican camps stepped up their campaigning drive before the crucial Super Tuesday, the day on which 24 states are holding nominating contests.  The candidates appeared on a number of televised talk shows trying to sway the votes on Super Tuesday to their favor.

In the Democrat campaigning push, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running closely matched. Each candidate is vying to get the upper hand. Clinton stated on a nationwide telecast that Obama was not prepared to meet the Republican offensive. She also stated, on ABC’s This Week, that she had been dealing with the Republicans for over 16 years and was very capable of holding her own. Opinion polls show that the gap between Clinton and Obama is narrowing. The Washington post and ABC conducted an opinion poll whose results stated that Clinton had a mere 4% lead over Obama. Both candidates are campaigning hard for the state of California. This is because out of the 2025 delegates that need to be won to secure a nomination as the Democrat’s nominee for the president, 370 are from this state.







Though Clinton expected to win this state with a clear margin, it seems that the popularity of both candidates is almost equal with Obama edging slightly ahead. While the former first lady of America was in Missouri and Minneapolis trying to gather support, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was campaigning for her in Los Angeles. Clinton is facing flak for her husband’s aggressiveness on the campaign trail. In fact, some feel that Bill Clinton’s campaigning effort is having detrimental chances on his wife'schance of doing well on Super Tuesday. People recalling Clinton’s previous bid for the Whitehouse, may be reluctant to see the Clinton and Bush dynasty becoming a periodic affair in American politics.

Obama was rallying at Delaware while his wife was campaigning for him in Los Angeles. He countered Clinton’s attacks by stating that she was considered a polarizing figure, and that he would be able to win votes that she would not.

Amongst the Republicans, John McCain had to defend his conservative stand against the challenges of Mitt Romney. He appeared to be well ahead of his competitors. The Washington Post poll put Mc Cain in the lead with 48% of the votes, with Romney trailing behind with 24%. Romney's main point of focus remains that McCain “doesn’t understand the economy.”

McCain spent the weekend campaigning at Connecticut, while Romney campaigned both at Illinois and at Missouri. Huckabee concentrated his efforts on the southern states of Georgia and Tennessee. Only time will tell who will remain standing for the final showdown after the smoke clears from Super Tuesday.