“Because this campaign for the United States is different,” said Barack Obama in his acceptance speech at his headquarters in Illinois, where he used to work as a community organiser.

It is different because the candidates are different. It is possible that he will become the first-ever black president, he has both a clean sheet, and is an unknown quantity.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, who supported the war in Iraq, could be set to become the first-ever woman president of the United States. Faux pas and White House soap opera are likely to be exposed if she faces off against war hero John McCain.

Only Evangelical Baptist minister Mike Huckabee remains on the Republican side, grossly-under funded but honest, who has taken Arkansas and Tennessee. Mitt Romney with his millions has gracefully bowed out.

John McCain is truly the ‘front runner’. They say independents vote for him because they can’t stand Hillary Clinton. And there are a lot of unaligned or ambivalent voters around this time.

On Super Tuesday, where 24 states were up for grabs, it may be significant that Hillary Clinton and John McCain won both of the crucial states, that is New York and California. These states are crucial because they yield to the candidate the greatest number of delegates.

When it comes down to it, at the end of the Primaries, on the 3rd of June, it will be the number of delegates that counts. After Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton has 1,045 delegates, and Barack Obama has 960 total delegates. 2,025 democratic delegates are needed at the national convention at the end of the summer.

It’s the politics of fear versus the politics of hope put forth by Barack Obama whose acceptance speech in Illinois was so impressive and the crowd so responsive.

Hillary Clinton’s “Bring me your poor and huddled masses” (taken from the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty) sounded clipped and out of context almost compared with Obama’s rhetorical skill. “We are more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are what we have always been, a United States.”

There are benefits to having the Republican race reduced to one front runner. It means that he can find holes in the Democrats. This could fuel the debates, bring out important policy issues and iron out problems before November. This could help make the Democratic party stronger.

Obama needs to be tested in these debates as he got popular awful fast. And he could be even more popular after his exposure and his wins on Super Tuesday. He has managed to raise all his campaign money from small public donations ($2,500 maximum per person), whereas Hillary Clinton has just put in $5million of her own money. He could rip through her solid base with his speech-making, charisma and charm. But it appears that this one is too close to call. This may not be a good thing.

There will be a Republican convention also at the end of the summer. It will be entirely ceremonial, attended by the delegates or supporters, when John McCain will accept his nomination to become candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

On the other hand, we expect the nomination to be undecided for the Democrats. In that case, the convention will actually be a functioning body attended by delegates.

Superdelegates, such as Bill Clinton and Teddy Kennedy, are experienced politicianswhose opinions will have more clout at the convention. They are seen as the wise men or elders who will moderate somewhat a process that might be ‘too democratic’.

Whether the Clinton’s coalition-building potential will win out here and efface Obama’s personal popularity and the promise of change, it’s hard to say. He may as yet be too young at 44 years. One thing we can say is that Super Tuesday brought out more young voters since they got the right to vote in 1972.

Who will come out on top? Clinton, McCain and Obama face the big slug-out.