Nerve Endings Firing Away

The United States Presidential Primary field just got a whole lot narrower this morning. First, John McCain emerged victorious in yesterday’s Florida primary in what may be considered one of the greatest comebacks in recent political history. Languishing far behind the front runners, Guiliani and Romney, his campaign was nearly bankrupt in the summer and his stance on immigration and the Iraq war were proving to be disastrous. But resilience and a lackluster Republican field allowed him a second chance. Second, John Edwards stepped out of the Democratic race making it a Clinton-Obama face off. The garibon-ka-saathi Edwards had no choice but to announce his withdrawal after the other two candidates hogged not only the limelight but also garnered millions. Even Edwards admitted that he has to step aside to let history blaze its path because if the Democratic nominee makes it to the White House it would be the first time a woman or a black candidate makes it. Only a McCain nomination would threaten that possibility.

The primaries on Tuesday will more or less decide the nominees for both parties as more than 20 states go to the polls and nearly 1600 delegates are at stakes. You need a little over 2000 to garner the nomination. I just hope we don’t have a brokered convention where much horse trading ensues because that will simply embitter people and reduce the voter turnout in November.

However, the best outcome of yesterday’s primary was Guiliani going down in flames. I was honestly worried when he was leading in the national polls and would have expected the worst for America if he got elected. But as the pundits say, the more people got to know, the less popular he became. And to top it, he skipped all the previous races before Florida and missed out on all that momentum and ended up concentrating on Florida where he eventually won only 15% of the vote. He was the most terrifying candidate for his penchant of invoking 9/11 in almost every statement; even the ones explaining his wife’s untimely calls while he spoke on stage. I had the opportunity to listen to him in person at Texas A&M and you can imagine the vitriol against the world amidst a clearly conservative crowd.

Regardless the overt influence of money and pandering in the elections, I enjoy the relative openness of the primary and nomination process in the United States. It at least gives the people plenty of opportunities to listen to the candidates and know them virtually inside out as dirt starts flying. I just wish India had such an open system and we had the opportunity to grill our would-be leaders on national TV although I’m not sure how much effect that would have on the final outcome. We are a sentimental lot.