BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Super Tuesday was proclaimed to be the closest thing America has ever had to a national primary.  Maybe it was.  There sure was a lot of excitement going into Tuesday.  Throughout the night there was a lot of excitement about who would be the winners and who would be the losers as the votes were counted. 

But, it’s Friday and who were the winners?  It seems if there was a single winner, it was John McCain on the Republican ticket.  Most people thought that Mike Huckabee would be considered a loser by Wednesday morning and Mitt Romney would be chasing the frontrunner.  In fact, John McCain seemed to grab a bit of a lead.  Romney came in second and became the first loser.  Huckabee surprised everyone by winning five states but came in third in the trifecta.  I guess it’s safe to say that third is the new runner up. 

In the GOP it seems that the winner won’t necessarily be decided as much by the vote total as by the man with the most stamina.  That was evidenced by Romney’s departure from the race on Thursday. 

What I can’t quite figure is how McCain seems to be gathering as many boo’s as votes.  McCain clearly came out of Super Tuesday with a substantial lead but when faced with Republican voters he was practically jeered.  The rhetoric from the conservatives is that McCain isn’t conservative enough.  Those are the only voices we seem to hear.  But, the bottom line seems to indicate that the conservatives are talking and not voting.  And, those who voted aren’t nearly as conservative as those who are raising so much McCain.

Of course, McCain does not have the nomination in the bag… yet.  But, Huckabee is going to be chasing him all the way to the finish line.

The real dilemna for me is who came out on top in the Democratic race?  I’ve heard that Clinton won the big states, Obama won the small states but more of them and no one knows who came out ahead in the race.  In fact, no one has yet produced a clear delegate count, not that I’ve seen.  So, here we are three days after the fact, counting less than half of the states, and I’m already reminded of the 2000 national election. 

We don’t have hanging chads, but we seem to have delegates hanging somewhere.  As if that isn’t confusing enough, we have now been introduced to the Super Delegate.  Some of the results include a few of the Super Delegates in the count.  Some don’t.  No wonder there is no clear winner yet. 

I haven’t been totally opposed to the idea of delegates or, on the national level, to the electoral college in the past.  But, based on the past several elections I’m beginning to think the time and the value of the delegate/electoral college have come and gone.  Wouldn’t it be so much easier to go back to the idea of one man (or woman) and one vote?  And, as for those Super Delegates, why is their vote so much more important than mine or yours? 

One person gets one vote.  We all keep saying we live in a democracy.  So, why not vote, at least in a presidential election, as a democracy would vote?  Or, let’s just finally admit that we all know we live in a republic and that the little people get a lesser vote than those who get “super” votes. 

I realize full well that the delegate problem is a Democratic issue for now.  At first, I really liked the idea that the Democrats weren’t going to award delegates by state based on the winner take all concept.  It seemed like each person who voted counted for something… but, maybe not enough. 

It may be time to take a very, very serious look at the voting procedure.  If we are having this much trouble counting awarded delegates from about half the states in the country, what do we have to look forward to in November?  Another Supreme Court decision?