Why is Super Tuesday so super?
Candidates drool over it. Campaign managers turn gray from it. Pollsters try, but often fail, to predict it. It's the second-most important Tuesday in the American political process: It's Super Tuesday, the day when nearly half the states in the union hold political primaries, caucuses and conventions to determine their candidates for president.
While it's a political tradition now, Super Tuesday isn't all that old. The first one was held in 1988, after the Democratic National Committee worked with several Southern states interested in reasserting the importance of their role in producing a nomination for the party.
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The national and state committees of both major American political parties spend lots of the time between elections tweaking their plans for nominating contests, including those for Super Tuesday. Much of this is folly, however. Once it was released, Super Tuesday became a monster that no one is capable of taming.
When primaries and caucuses are spread out over the year, candidates have the opportunity to spend quality time in states getting to know the voters. In Michigan, they talk about bringing jobs back to the automotive industry. In Kansas, they talk about restructuring the Farm Bill. In Florida, they talk about changing America's image abroad to attract more international tourists. All of this amounts to what's known as retail politics: touching on issues of local importance rather than the issues that might win the general election.
This is one of the facets of a presidential campaign that Super Tuesday was designed to change. It would be much easier to run a successful presidential campaign if the candidates had the time to tell every voter in every state what he or she wanted to hear. And with primaries spread out, the candidates would have time to personally attend the fundraisers that replenish the coffers of their campaigns.
But there must be a reason why Super Tuesday is so super. Find out more on the next page.
The History of Super Tuesday
"Super Tuesday was basically designed to nationalize the message, to try to reduce the influence of the so-called 'Iowa syndrome,' " Virginia senator Chuck Robb told Robert MacNeil in an interview on "NewsHour" following the first Super Tuesday in 1988 [source: PBS]. Robb, one of the architects of the original mass-primary plan, was looking to offset a lot of the retail politics that come from spread-out primaries. Iowa is one of the first local nominating contests every four years and holds a lot of political influence.
Super Tuesday was meant to be a sink-or-swim boot camp for campaigns to determine if they could run a tight race on national issues in a manner that would be required of a candidate once he reached the White House. Super Tuesday was intended to bring out the wholesale politics that affect everyone in the United States: foreign policy, war and the economy.
The Super Tuesday model closely resembles the general election in which each party's candidates will compete the following November. A large swath of voters from a number of states all vote or caucus on the same day. These states are of equal importance, unlike spread-out primary schedules where the most important state is the one that's holding the next primary.
Iowa and New Hampshire have traditionally been viewed as important states in the primary season because they hold their nominating contests first in the nation. Super Tuesday is important because it's a test of how a candidate plays across a broad spectrum of voters and entire regions. The first region in 1988 was limited to the Southern states, which share a bit in common politically. Some critics of Super Tuesday at the time said it should cover an entire time zone, which features even more diversity among voters.
A large group of states holding primaries on the same day also gives parties an idea of how their candidates compare to those from the rival party. For example, if the Republicans have a front-runner and the Democrats are running a tight race, they can compare the results of the primaries to see which of the Democratic candidates beat the Republican front-runner. Those candidates might do better in a general election and will surely receive more assistance in their campaign for their party's nomination [source: Time].
But such a complex contest as Super Tuesday can't help but pose problems. Read about why Super Tuesday can also be Troublesome Tuesday on the next page.
Not-Such-A-Great-Idea Tuesday
One problem with a group of primaries and caucuses scheduled together on the same day is that it demands a fast pace. Candidates don't have time to get their message out and voters don't have time to hear it. This results in what politicos call tarmac campaigning -- candidates have no time to leave the immediate area of their plane during this rigorous schedule.
Holding lots of contests simultaneously in many states all over the country also means that if you're a candidate with limited funds, it's a good bet you'll be broke before the campaign leading up to Super Tuesday is over. Flying from state to state in a short time really adds up.
Another troubling aspect of Super Tuesday is that it usually determines a party's nominee early in the presidential race. This leaves fewer people feeling as if they have a say in primaries that come later on. With huge amounts of delegates going to one candidate or another in a single day, the delegates from states with later primaries become less important. This is especially true after a Super Tuesday where a clear victor has emerged and has garnered nearly enough delegates to carry his or her party's nomination.
Super Tuesday's problems became even more glaring during the 2008 primaries. In 2004, 10 states held contests on that year's Super Tuesday -- March 2 [source: Washington Post]. On February 5, 2008, Republicans will hold 21 contests and Democrats will hold 21, in a total of 24 states. Nearly half of the total number of delegates needed to make it to the next round in the race to the White House will be up for grabs on that day.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans set the first Tuesday in February of the year the national conventions are held as the earliest any state can hold its primary or caucus. In 2008, the Republicans made no exceptions, although the Democrats allowed Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to go first. This made states that have traditionally felt left out move their primaries to the earliest date, February 5, resulting in a frontloading of the primary schedule [source: George Washington University].
In 2008, Super Tuesday will see a record number of states holding their primaries on the same day in a race where the candidacies for both parties are up for grabs -- even after several primaries and caucuses have already been held. This means that rather than produce the clear candidate that Sen. Robb engineered Super Tuesday to do, February 5 could split the races even further, drawing out the already cash-strapped campaigns [source: Time].
States have rushed to the starting line to hold their primaries on the earliest possible date. With so much at stake, candidates are forced to campaign harder in states that hold the best potential for him or her. This means that other states will end up neglected by some candidates, further exacerbating the problem of uninformed voters scratching their heads at the polls.
For more information on primaries, caucuses and other related topics, visit the next page.