New Hampshire Primary

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The presidential election process of the United States is interesting. Because the American politics is monopolized by two parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, an American presidential election usually means a battle between two major candidates. Of course third party members, like Ralph Nader and Ross Perro, do influence a bit, but not that much.

As a result, the two parties' presidential candidate election process is as complicated and fascinating as the actual presidential election. This party candidate nomination process utilizes something called primary elections. Before explaning it, it is important to know that the delegates from each state, just like the actual presidential electoral college, vote to nominate a party candidate. So in the past, the party nominees were not directly choosen by the American citizens, but by the delegates. So this resulted in corruptions, secret negotiatins, sellings of offices, etc. This led the states to let the common voters to choose the delegates who will be voting in the party nominee convention. This is called Primary. It is similar to the actual presidential system; commoners elect delegates, who then elect a president. Likewise, the commoners vote for state delegates, who then vote to nominate a party candidate at the party convention. Throughout the early half of the year 2008, primary elections will be held in the 50 states chronically. A big day is called Super Tuesday, when many of the most populous states, New Yok, California, and Florida, have primaries. So, the candidate who won the most number of delegates will be nominated as a presidential candidate for that party.

Hilary Clinton, Barrack Obama, and John Edwards are fighting for nomination in the Democratic Party. Up until now, Hilary was thought to be the "obvious" choice, but Obama's incredible rise in popularity, thanks to the younger generations and Oprah Winfrey, suddenly made the race unpredictable. Barrack's dramatic triumph in the Iowa caucus, however, was then balanced by the New Hempshire primary, in which Hilary unexpectedly have won. Contradicting previously taken polls, Hilary won New Hempshire with 39%; Obama had 36%. Many say that this is the result of Hilary sobbing while having a fan chat. Also, Obama's rise scared the middle-aged and old-aged Americans, who tend to look down on Obama's Black heritage and are afraid of change, to support Hilary at New Hempshire. So the Democratic race is now balanced, and we shall see who will win the next primary in Michigan. In fact, as of today Obama have won 25 delegates and Hilary won 24. Edwards won 18 delegates, but I do not think he stands a good chance.

For the Republicans, there are so many candidates. Some of them are Thompson the second Reagan, Juliani the 911 Hero, and Mccain the old rival of George W. Bush. However, Huckabee had won the Iowa caucus, thanks to the concentrated support from the conservative and religious Americans who were impressed by Huckabee's old profession as a minister. However, McCain have won the New Hempshire primary today, followed by Romni, a Massachusetts governor who had been leading the polls until Iowa Caucus. So, at the moment, it is really hard to determine who's winning. If I have to choose one, I'd say it's either Romni or Huckabee.
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