The Primaries

One of Richard's main interests is politics - a subject which is one of his options for a University course if he gets offerred a place. As a result he has got me vaguely interested in ther Primaries:-

WITH NO CLEAR FRONT-RUNNER, CANDIDATES HEAD TO NEXT STATES

New Hampshire traditionally hosted the first primaries of the presidential election. Candidates hope that a win in New Hampshire will propel them to victories in other states.

New Hampshire voters showed up in record numbers and surprised many by casting their ballots for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary January 8.

Despite nearly every poll predicting a Clinton loss and media reports of her campaign staff in disarray, the New York senator won the Democratic presidential primary by about two percentage points over Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

With the Iowa and New Hampshire races behind them, the candidates will travel to a number of different states. In January, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida will hold races. On February 5, more than 20 states will hold primary elections.

Three Republican candidates each have won a caucus or primary -- Huckabee in Iowa, McCain in New Hampshire and Romney in Wyoming. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been focusing his campaign on winning a majority of states’ contests on February 5. With so many candidates, it is very unclear who ultimately will win the Republican nomination.

For non-SImpson fans the next paragraph will be a bit mystifying...


What I don't understand (and there's a lot I don't understand about American politics) is why Ralph Wiggum doesn't get a mention. He would get my vote over Hillary Clinton any time! Ralph announced his candidacy on the January 6th episode of The Simpsons. Actually, he isn't the one who announces it; rather, the voters of Springfield, who reject all of the other candidates in their first primary, write the young Wiggum in as a candidate. He quickly becomes an independent presidential front-runner that party leaders for both the Republicans and the Democrats want to have in their court.