Super Fat Tuesday

What a day we have today, February 5, 2008. It is Super Tuesday, the long-awaited multi state primary, the closest we have come to a national contest during the primary season. The days of retail politics, small and intimate gatherings in New Hampshire diners and Iowa farmhouses have melted away from the memory like so much early winter snow. It is the big time now, with celebrities like Oprah and various members of the Kennedy clan holding huge rallies, debates attended by Hollywood's A-list, apparently jonesing for something to attend due to the writer's strike, and ads being run on cable news channels as well as the holy grail of advertising, the Super Bowl itself. Makes you wonder how many 25 dollar donations had to be pieced together to pay for one of those spots. California, New York, Illinois, the big boys are in play now, and we are getting down to serious delegate counts, and also to the final four. It just also happens to be Fat Tuesday, the last day for revelment and debauchery before Lent, and to make things even more interesting, this is the day that New Yorkers will celebrate the Giants unexpected and most exciting Super Bowl victory with what figures to be a rousing ticker-tape parade. But the main issue at hand is presidential politics and getting one step closer to determining which two candidates will be vying to replace President Bush come next January.

So let's start with the candidate who offers the least change, Mitt Romney. Or more to the point, take Mitt Romney, please. This guy is so stiff he makes Al Gore look like a good time, he's a carciature of the stereotypical Republican, rich, white, and clueless. John McCain on the other hand is not your typical conservative. He is, or at least at one point was, in favor of a realistic and humane immigration reform policy, opposed to the illogical and irresponsible Bush tax cuts, and doesn't seem overly beholden to the trifecta of modern day GOP politics, the Jesus freaks, the talk-radio charlatans, and the bubba's who can't tell the difference between a Mexican and Osama bin Laden. But McCain is a hawk's hawk, apparently spending time in a P.O.W. camp gives you the right to support endless war against anyone and everyone. Just because he probably has an authentic brown leather bomber jacket doesn't make him any less dangerous than our current commander-in-chief.

The Democrats offer hope for a different direction, and the two candidates left are very similar in their policy stances, with the lone and important exception being the war in Iraq. Barack Obama offers the hope that the madness will end soon after he takes office, while Hilary Clinton promises meetings with generals and likely just different justifications for the same old failed policies. When it comes to taxes and economic fairness, sensible immigration reform, the chance at more widespread healthcare, and a break from the bomb first and ask questions later foreign policy that the conservatives favor, either Clinton or Obama would seem to be able to get the job done. The main difference between the two, outside of policy issues, is a break from the past and a chance at consensus, which Obama promises, versus a continuation of the orthodox divide and conquer policies of the past 16 years, which Clinton seems likely to support.

What happens today is anybody's guess, kind of like predicting who will win a football game. You can envision certain scenarios playing out, but we won't know what happens until it happens, and by then all the Monday morning quarterbacks on network and cable news will have told us how they knew it all along. Conventional wisdom holds that McCain will put a stranglehold on the Republican nomination, while the Democratic race will remain up for grabs, with one or the other gaining some momentum but not being able to deliver the knockout blow. Regardless, it makes for interesting theater, and it is heartening to see a public that is often lambasted for being apathetic tuning in and showing up to take part in the process. So enjoy Super Fat Tuesday, and here's hoping we don't get confused and end up seeing Hillary wearing Mardi Gras beads and Mitt Romney flashing his bare chest at the Giants victory parade.