‘Super Choose Day’, as the Denver Post dubbed it, was a draw. The largest single primary day in American electoral history, Super Tuesday should have put an end to the primary campaigns in both parties, with “decisive wins for a candidate in each”, says Gerard Baker in The Times. Instead, it looked liked a “Groundhog Day” for the Democrats, with the tussle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remaining unresolved.
And for the Republicans it represented yet another steady, if somewhat reluctant, step towards the “coronation” of John McCain, the Arizona senator – his victory was delayed by the “unexpected resurgence” of Mike Huckabee.
On both sides the complexity of the contest is heightened by the fact that winning the nomination is not simply a case of winning the most votes in each state, but of gaining a majority of nominating delegates from all the states. And although in the Republican race some states allocate delegates on a winner-take-all basis, many do not. On the Democratic side, all the states award delegates proportionate to the votes cast for each candidate. Thus the key result is not the number of states won by each candidate, but the number of delegates – and those were much more broadly distributed among the candidates.
The Democrats competed in 22 states with 1,678 delegates at stake, says Laura Meckler in the Wall Street Journal. Although Clinton picked up New York, New Jersey and California at the time of writing, she only had a narrow lead of 584 delegates to Obama’s 569, giving her 845 delegates overall and Obama 765. To claim the nomination, 2,025 delegates are required. On the Republican side, a total of 1,023 delegates was at stake in 21 states, and at the time of writing McCain was on top with 511 delegates to 269 for Romney and 175 for Huckabee. He now leads with 613 delegates to 251 for Romney and 175 for Huckabee. It takes 1,091 to win.
Although the counting is not complete, it’s clear that the Obama/Clinton battle will continue for weeks, says The New York Times. The results also suggest that the Democrats are “fracturing along gender and racial lines”. Obama and Clinton have “few policy disputes”, but there are gulfs between their core supporters. Young and black voters favour Obama; women and Hispanics, Clinton. This means that whoever wins the Democratic nomination will “face the gargantuan task of winning over the other’s voters”.
In the Republican camp, Romney’s defeat has been “spectacular”, says Baker. He has spent more money than any other candidate (including $40m of his personal fortune), yet on Tuesday he won just three out of 16 primary contests. This represents a “stunning defeat” for the “archpriests of the conservative movement”, including religious leaders and senior party members in Washington, who “despise” McCain for his independent streak.
Still, at least the Republicans appear to have their candidate, says Rob Cox on Breakingviews; the sooner the Democrats choose theirs, the better. As the US economy headings into recession, it’s time that candidates stopped “bickering over personality” and started debating the issues. Voters are worried about job security and wages, yet on the matter of America’s “shaky finances”, only “broad brushstrokes have been committed to canvas by the candidates thus far”. It is only when the detail emerges that the real battle for the White House will have begun.