Will the team from New York prevail? Will 2008 be an historic year? Who will carry the pivotal state of Arizona? Are the TV ads the best part or just a distraction from what really matters?
What am I talking about?
See, that’s the thing. You’ll notice that these questions work for both the upcoming Super Bowl and the upcoming Super Tuesday political primaries and caucuses. For the first time ever, the NFL’s annual championship event will be held within 48 hours of the election that might well determine our next president. The result is a deeply troubling overuse of the word “super.”
The Super Bowl has been much more than a football game for a long time. But each year this cultural event digs in just a bit deeper. People from all walks of life gather to watch an event they do not fully understand but that everyone generally regards as important. Even if they don’t care about the game, they stay for the ads and stilted halftime program. Snacks and beer provided by your host make the experience all the more amusing.
Snacks and beer have long been keeping politics palatable for a vast number of voters as well. We Americans get pretty serious about our politics. I seem to recall reading something about a revolution. And no, I’m not talking about the Dance Revolution; I’m talking about the American Revolution, which did not, at least not to my knowledge, involve hard-edged techno beats. Point is, emotions run high in politics.
This year those emotions might be pushed to the breaking point as just two days after the Super Bowl, caucus goers here in Minnesota and 21 other states will take part in “Super Tuesday.” We’re told that their statement will impact the nominees of America’s two major political parties. Democrats have two, maybe three major candidates vying for delegates while Republicans have three, maybe four who have a plausible chance of winning the nomination (as I write this). However, some pundits are already suggesting that with there being no inevitable front runner on either side that the delegates awarded on Super Tuesday could be so split up that the nominations of one or both parties could be held up until the conventions this summer and early fall. That means a few thousand party activists will determine the nominees while the rest of the world watches on television. Or, more likely, watches something else on television until Jon Stewart starts making fun of the winners.
So much history in such a short time! We have the possibility of an African-American president, a woman president, a Mormon president, an elderly president, a mayor-turned-president or even a president whose last name sounds like a theme restaurant (Welcome to Huckabee Junction, would you like to sit in a barrel or over on yonder handcart?) At the same time, we might see the first undefeated team in almost a quarter century or the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl the year after his brother did the same.
My main concern about the close proximity of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday is the possibility of confusion. What happens if Mitt Romney is mistakenly elected the Super Bowl MVP and Tom Brady sweeps primaries in the northeast and west on his way to the simultaneous nomination of both parties? Also, can the dip left out on Super Bowl Sunday be reused on Super Tuesday?
The answers to all these many questions await us in the coming week. I can only hope the results are just as super as advertised.
~ This is my weekly Hibbing Daily Tribune column for Sunday, Jan. 27.
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