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I have never really paid attention to politics and if you consider how often I incorrectly guess what Kathleen Wynne is going to do next, you quickly realize I don’t really understand the sport.

With that said, the U.S. Presidential Election to be held this November has become the best reality TV that we can find in our house.  With three kids taking US History in high school and with the cast of characters running for President this year, the show is gripping.

Super Tuesday

I have heard the expression ‘Super Tuesday’ over the years – but never really thought much about what it meant.  So as it turns out – Tuesday March 1, 2016 is this year’s Super Tuesday where more delegates to the U.S. presidential nominating conventions can be won than on any other single day of the primary calendar.  Explaining how the primary calendar and the presidential nominating conventions work would take pages – but it turns out to work about as you expected.

Sanders vs Clinton

For the Democratic Party – there are only two contenders – Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Clinton is the incumbent candidate of the party – married to a former President, herself a former Senator (New York) and Secretary of State – Clinton has all the experience and credentials to be the democratic nominee.  There is only one problem – many voters don’t trust that she is honest and her campaign inappropriately has tried to message to women that they should vote for the female candidate.  Nothing pisses intelligent women off more than telling them they should do something solely based upon their gender.

Sanders is the grandfather many of us wish we could have – smart and rich.  Unfortunately for Sanders, his ideas are so far out of the mainstream that he is attracting the marginalized in U.S. society but most of the ‘establishment’ is backing Clinton because she is expected to protect their interests.

The Clinton-Sanders race has exposed the Democratic Party establishment to be much less about the ‘little guy’ than they like to portray in the media.  On the other hand – it is unclear if Sanders’ highly socialistic ideas could actually work.   After three close primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, Clinton won convincingly last Saturday in South Carolina and holds a 90 to 65 lead over Sanders.  With 865 delegates to be won on March 1^st – it will be interesting to see if Clinton will close this out or if Sanders will battle back to make things interesting.

Trump vs World

The Republican Party race is by far the most interesting.  Most think there are only three men left in the race but there are still five on the ballot.  Famed businessman Donald John Trump is running to be the party nominee and currently has a commanding lead.  Many in the Republican Party establishment are terrified that Trump will win the nomination and thus destroy the wonderful link between money and government policy that they have built over the years.  But it is only the half-mile pole and if you have ever lost money at the race track watching a late charge by the odds-on favourite to beat your long shot, you know that you shouldn’t head to the window to cash your ticket just yet.  Trump is being called by some as “The Greatest Show on Earth” which is an allusion to circus master P.T.Barnum and the movie tells the story of the dichotomy between the troubles behind the curtain with the Pied Piper that obscures the truth for an audience willing to have their belief suspended.  The individual that came up with this comparison is somewhat of a genius in my mind.

On With the Show

On Tuesday I will be watching CNN which seems to be my go-to channel for commentary on this extravaganza.  I sometimes wonder how Anderson Cooper manages to keep a straight face and not break out laughing at some of the things Trump and Sanders say:  “The wall just got 10 feet higher” said Trump and “We’re going to have to do something pretty hard.  Pretty, pretty, pretty hard, to quote Larry David” said Sanders.  I just burst out laughing at these lines.

I don’t know how it is going to end on Tuesday – I think Clinton, Sanders, Cruz, Rubio, and Trump are all names that could rise to the top by the end of the day.  But I also think that the day has the potential to tell us which candidates are going to represent their respective parties in the next election.

Stay tuned.