The Super Tuesday!

The day is 6th March 2012. The place is 10 states across The United States of America.

And the target is The GOP Nomination for the four candidates left in the fray.

Yes. Super Tuesday night not be all that Super, since it has been slimmed down to half its 2008 size. But it sure is one with the biggest payout of the Republican presidential primaries.

It could end the show for Newt Gingrich, or lend more credibility to Raun Paul(after his impressive show in Washington).
And it is an opportunity for both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to score a decisive advantage over the other.

With more than 400 delegates at stake, the Super Tuesday contests offer a significant boost in the quest for the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination.

The states voting Tuesday are Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.

As of now, Mitt Romney leads the race for the GOP nomination, with 180 delegates. Rick Santorum is running second with 90 delegates, followed by Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

State-Wise Analysis in the following posts!

Mohit Dayal

Next Stop : New Hampshire

The New Hampshire primary is the first primary election held in the United States and the second step following the Iowa Caucuses in choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidency. It takes place in the small state of New Hampshire and is designed to give an early and important voice to the New England region much like the Iowa Caucus gives an early and important voice to the Midwest, South Carolina Primary to the South and Nevada Caucus to the West.

New Hampshire is considered an independent state that votes both Democrat and Republican and therefore has been considered a good gauge of the nations feelings.

The New Hampshire Primary gives a candidate with little money, low name recognition or candidates from smaller states legitimate shots at winning. It is a small state who demands personal contact and is opposed to typical negative political ads. History says do well in Iowa or New Hampshire or go home.

Last Time Around

Barack Obama was stunned by Hillary R. Clinton here four years ago. He was on a roll and arrived as a heavy favorite after a thumping victory in Iowa.

Five days later, Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated him in a stunning upset that he never saw coming.

On the other hand, The Republican primaries saw John McCain defeat Mitt Romney and take 7 of the 12 national delegates up for grabs. Sen. McCain registered 37% votes, compared to Romney's 32% .

More on the New Hampshire Primary in the next post!

Mohit Dayal

The Race Begins !!!!

Good evening!

Four years ago I had covered both the Democratic and Republican Primaries on my personal blog with the label “US Presidential Elections”. It was a wonderful phase in my life, as I happened to read and understand the many facets of American Politics, and learnt to appreciate Democracy the way it exists in the most powerful democracy on our planet. I was an ardent supporter of Senator John McCain (Rep.) even though I was slightly biased towards Congressman Ron Paul (Rep./Lib.). I was also in favour of Governor Sarah Palin (Alaska) for the position of VP. But it was not enough as President Obama and VP Joe Biden won the elections comfortably. Overall, the experience was intriguing and exciting.

This year, however, the incumbent Democrat President is running almost unopposed for a 2^nd term in the White House (more on that in a later post talking exclusively about the Democratic Presidential Primaries). But what makes this election equally interesting is “supposed non-availability” of a strong Republican candidate who can appeal to the core Republican base and at the same time has a broader appeal, broad enough to topple President Obama in the final Presidential elections to be held on 4^th November, 2012.

The 2008 win of President Obama was during a period of uncertainty and confusion. He gave hope and promised a thriving America. Instead the people felt betrayed by his bailout of American Banks and his going-back on his promise of bringing home the American troops waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead he gave them the Healthcare bill, which took a heavy beating in the Congress thanks to the Republicans. The bill also reinforced the till-then-dormant paranoia of President Obama trying to infuse Socialism in the American way of life.  Overall, Obama’s image took a solid beating, and less and less people were unsure if he should be given another term.

But what to do if there is not another alternative? That is still the dilemma among many of the Independent voters (around 25 to 30% of the electorate) who did not see anyone from the Republican-side who could do a better job than what Obama did. The radicalization of the Republican Party, with the advocate of the Tea Party members (the most notable ones being Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann) did not help the Republican cause of mobilizing supporters from all walks of life. Although the movement did attract many people, Most of them were already ardent supporters of the Republican Party, and did not add to the moderate numbers in the Republican camp.

So this year’s election is the Republicans’ to lose. If they manage to select a moderate conservative, they might just sneak past the post, but risk losing the support of the one they elected. If they select a radical right-winger, they might just lose in the final elections. But 8 months is a lot of time, and things change a lot. Let’s hope for the best.

Varun Reddy.

Welcome to our blog!

Good afternoon!

Welcome to the unofficial coverage of the Indian view-point of the US Presidential Elections. If you’ve landed on this blog, you must be somewhat interested in what is going on in the US Presidential Elections and its dynamics. Caucuses, Primaries etc.; oh the confusion of it all!

Through this blog, I and my colleague and good friend Mohit Dayal will try to make sense of the chaotic race to the White House, 2012. We will try to give an Indian perspective to the elections i.e. how we, as two young educated Indians perceive this long and arduous process. However, bear in mind that our views are personal, and have been formulated after a lot of reading (magazines, newspapers etc.) and viewing (TV, Movies etc.) of this process. We might not always offer the fairest of views, but we will surely try to be as objective as we possibly can.

It was Mohit’s idea to start a separate blog for covering the US Presidential Elections. Since we have regular discussions relating to this on Facebook, I thought it was natural to air our thoughts and views on a larger scale.

My name is Varun Reddy (nickname: IIM Ka Sarkari Babu). After completing my MBA from IIM Lucknow, I landed a job in a Govt. organization in the Personnel Division. I love blogging and have blogged on the US Presidential Elections in 2008. You can view the 2008 Election coverage at this link.

Mohit is doing his Bachelors in Computer Sciences at the KIIT. He blogs on politics and other issues related to India and the world alike. His blog can be accessed at this link.

We hope that you find our coverage interesting. Please do comment and feel free to share your views on the post concerned. And once again, welcome J

Varun Reddy.