PRESIDENTIAL BATTLE IN THE US: DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS PRINT

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Jan 31 2008
Turkey

The long marathon of presidential elections of the US has started
in the beginning of 2008 with Republicans and Democrats fighting to
be elected as their party’s presidential candidate. Through a series
of state-by-state primaries and caucuses, the main political figures
in both sides have been battling to force out their rivals as much
as possible.

On the one hand, the main contest within the Democrats has been
mainly between the New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack
Obama from Illinois. That is, the Democrats have been experiencing an
interesting election competition between an African American candidate
and a female one. Another candidate, John Edwards, is not given much
chance due to the excessive powers of the former two. In fact, many
argue that the last potential nominee for the party has been treated
as a bystander alongside the other two.

In the battle between Clinton and Obama, the picture is quite
mysterious with regard to who will become the winner out of the tense
elections competitions. The Democrat Party has 4049 delegates and in
order to be elected as the candidate for the presidency, the potential
candidates should get the support of at least 2025 delegates. On
January, 3, Obama won the Iowa caucus with 37.58% percent support,
ahead of 29.75% for John Edwards and 29.47% for Clinton. Then, on
January 8, Clinton won the New Hampshire primary with 39% of the
vote to Obama’s 37%. With the South Carolina primary, Obama defeated
Clinton on January 26 with the support of 55% while the latter getting
27%. And on the race over Florida, the fourth most populous state in
the US, Clinton has won on January, 29. Among the others, these two
candidates have a very divergent policies with regard to many issue
and have produces various accusations to one another. However, if
elected, they have a common goal to deal with the ‘Armenian issue’;
which has been continuously utilized for gaining the votes of 1.5
million people having Armenian origin in the US.

On the other hand, three political figures have been in a harsh race
within Republicans to be elected as the nominee of the party for
the presidential elections. These are Arizona senator John McCain,
former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York City
Mayor Rudy Giuliani. A Republican leader to be nominated for the
presidential candidacy should reach the number of 1191 out of 2380
delegates within the party. While Romney has managed to acquire the
support of the people in Iowa, Michigan and Nevada, McCain became
victorious in New Hampshire and Florida. The third competitor,
Giuliani, had been following an unconventional policy by getting
prepared for only the Florida primary that was hold on January 29.

However, the result was a total collapse for him as he only managed
to be the third after the former two with a support of 15%.

For now, no expert is sure about who will be nominated from Democrats
or Republicans. While Obama-Clinton race has been increasingly becoming
tense, the Republicans have seemed to reduce the potential names to
two after the collapse of Giuliani at the Florida primary.

Now, the ‘Super Duper Tuesday’ is the date for which everybody is
waiting in the US. On February 5, 22 states will simultaneously hold
the elections in order to find the right name to nominate for the
presidential elections which will be held in November 2008.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress