Super Week!

Between January 29 and February 5 of 2008, eight days in total, no other word was used as often as the word “Super”! Between the presidential campaign and a certain professional sporting event, nothing this huge has ever been cramped into such a short time period. Yes, it was truly a ‘Super Week’ with the two main events being held on Sunday, February 3 and Tuesday, February 5.

After the presidential primary election in Florida on January 29, Senator John McCain on the Republican side received some Super endorsements from fellow Republicans and became an instant frontrunner in that party. Senator Barack Obama received a Super endorsement by Senator Ted Kennedy (and his niece Caroline Kennedy among others) and gained tremendous momentum on the Democrat side. On January 30 and 31, the remaining candidates in both parties held their last debates before Super Tuesday and while there were still four candidates on the Republican side, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul (Rudy Giuliani had dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain the day after the Florida election), only Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remained standing (after former Senator John Edwards dropped out) on the Democrat side.

With the fewer number of candidates, the debates were more focused and produced sharper differences between them. All candidates and their supporters then began criss-crossing the country to be in as many States as possible before Super Tuesday.

But the weekend belonged to an annual sporting event, the Super Bowl, being held this year in Glendale, Arizona. The final game of the National Football League’s season featured a major favorite in the New England Patriots who had been undefeated all season long with an 18:0 record and going for an unprecedented record 19:0 season. They were facing the New York Giants, a team that had been a wild-card team but had surprised in three previous games such favorites as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers, all on their home turf. Nevertheless, against the New England Patriots, they remained 14-point underdogs and were given hardly a chance to be competitive by the pundits. In order to win the game, the Giants were given a list of expectations on what to do; very few people considered it probable or even possible.

The game was played and, against all odds, the Giants won 17 to 14! They prevented the Patriots to finish the season undefeated. We do not want to analyze the reason for that, but have to say unequivocally: It was a Super Game! It exceeded all expectations and was exciting up to the last second. The term Super in Super Bowl was truly appropriate compared to other year’s championship games. This event exceeded expectations even if it left a great number of fans disappointed, but then, there can only be one winner in a game like this!

Back to the event called “Super Tuesday”: Caucuses and primaries were held on February 5 in over twenty States across the country but contrary to the Super Bowl, no clear winner emerged, at least not on the Democrat side. The picture became somewhat clearer on the Republican side in that Senator McCain racked up the greatest number of delegates, he has now well over 700 and appears to have his parties nomination all but wrapped up, especially since his strongest opponent, former Governor Romney suspended his campaign. That leaves former Arkansas Governor Huckabee continuing his campaign but with currently enjoying less than 200 delegates, only a dreamer could consider his chances of winning the nomination possible.

However, the two Democrat contenders are almost deadlocked in the delegate count, in fact, Senator Obama won Tuesday night’s delegate disbursement and he is in a very strong position financially, has momentum and the next several primaries and caucuses seem to favor him. But the reality is that this nomination is far from being wrapped up and the ‘battle’ between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama could go all the way to the party’s convention in August.

Having said all that, it was truly a Super Week with the multitude of important events taking place. We here at this site come away from all this totally amazed once again at how wrong the so-called ‘experts’ were. All the Football experts picked the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl and go undefeated through the season while the political and media experts had picked for many months the opposite of what happened on Super Tuesday. This day was supposed to be the coronation of Hillary Clinton as the nominee of the Democrat party while the process of the Republican side was supposed to be well contested for at least another two months between the various candidates.

Is there a lesson to be learned? We think so! The lesson is the very foundation of our site: Consider Common Sense and start Thinking for yourself. Just because you read it more than once in the press or hear it repeatedly on television does and should not mean that it is true and you should Not believe everything you hear and read in the media. Of course, the very same thing can be said about polls. The pollsters have been so wrong during the past year. Close races have been blowouts while blowouts have been very close after the votes were cast. Not to mention when winners turned out be losers whether it was in sports or the political arena.

This article and others on Common Sense Authors with Common Sense Perspectives are designed to provoke further thought and investigation.   It is not the intent for the articles to be politically biased. Sources are referenced in each article to encourage readers to delve into the supporting material.  We welcome all readers to participate with their point of view either in support or contrary with additional information sources.