Pick a candidate . . . any candidate

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few months, you know that there is a heated race in the political world to see who’ll become the next great mess maker of the free world. It seems to be a daunting task, one that drains both the pockets and nerves of these poor hopefuls, because as I was typing this editorial, dear Republican trailer Mitt Romney “suspended” his campaign. Five minutes later, list upon list was published, stating the top five, ten and twenty reasons he was a failure. Makes you think that these people were waiting on it, almost akin to the Associated Press’s prewritten obituary for Brit-Brit, does it not?
After the Super Tuesday scramble that many believed would give either candidate on both sides a great stride to the finish, the rest of the state’s primary and caucuses seemed to fade into the background, that is, until, no clear front runner was named. In order to understand all the hubbub about the race, perhaps it should be explained just who, what and why these pesky polls matter at all. Have no fear, CNN, ask.com and myself are here. But I’m mostly here for comedic relief.
Registered Louisiana voters have some treat coming up this Saturday, because the state’s primary will come to town. Now what, you may ask, is a primary? In the state which holds it, all registered voters are welcomed to vote for the candidate. There are several types of primaries: open, semi-opened, closed, semi-closed, blanket and runoff. It should be no surprise that dear ol’ Louisiana has none of the above. We will, this Saturday, February 9, 2008, be privy to a nonpartisan presidential primary.
What this means is that any registered voter can vote for any candidate, and the nominee that gets the highest number of votes goes on to win the election. Sound fishy? Well, welcome to Louisiana.
Might I add that certain parts of the state hold true closed primaries in that only registered voters to a party may only vote for that candidate who’s party correspond to it. It’s a wacky, wacky situation. One would do best to be a previously registered party voter in Louisiana to one of the larger parties in this case. Independents and Green people need not apply.
A caucus, on the other hand, is a complex and complicated horse of another color all together. But…it doesn’t have to be. The caucus is like a dance. Everyone meets up, with the cool, assured kids in the middle of the dance floor, showing off and sweating, with the token ‘losers’ and non-dancers stuck doing the hand-jive hoping for the off chance that some cool kid will save them from holding up the wall.
Translation? A caucus is a meeting place where registered voters group up according to their candidate. Those that are independent, or unsure of a candidate are courted, persuaded, bribed, cajoled or threatened into selected candidates groups. They are then invited to come to hear speeches to sway those uncommitted. At the end, voters in candidates groups are counted by party leaders to determine the number of delegates are won to proceed to the county or parish’s convention.
While Tuesday was a fun time to watch CNN, I feel duty bound to inform you to “get familiar” with each parties delegate system. Democrats function on a proportional method. Layman’s terms: You get votes in the state based on the support given. Republicans allow state’s to choose either a proportional method or a winner takes all, which means that they can either get the whole pie, or just the piece earned.
All of the primaries, caucuses and conventions are held to earn enough delegate votes to garner the national party’s nomination. On the Democratic side, a candidate must have 2,025 to win the nomination, while Republicans must have at least 1,191. Currently, Clinton holds 1, 033 delegates with Obama trailing by 937. On the red side, McCain leads the pack with 714 with Romney, Huckabee and Paul trailing with 286, 1814 and a sad, sad 16, respectively.
Therefore on Saturday, do your part as a REGISTERED VOTER to choose a candidate you’d like to see at the end of the summer at his or her respective party’s nomination. Pick the person who you wish to see beat the pants off the other party’s person. Because by the end of the summer, only two people will matter in the presidential election: one Democrat and one Republican.
So, pick a candidate, any candidate. Your future could rest heavily on it.