Tuesday contests pose risk

Up to 80 million people will vote Tuesday in 24 states.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — They’ve had their say, the people of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

Now, tens of millions of Americans across the country will get to weigh in Tuesday on who should lead the two major parties into the fall presidential election.

Tuesday’s unprecedented flood of caucuses and primaries will give voice to as many as 80 million voters in 24 states, a diverse chorus that could anoint one party’s nominee, break the stalemate in the other party and test both parties’ coalitions.

What these voters say could effectively decide the Republican presidential nomination, if they jump on board John McCain’s bandwagon or rally behind challenger Mitt Romney as the anti-McCain.

They also could break the running tie between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and give one a real burst of momentum — or deliver another split decision that sends them on to grapple state by state, delegate by delegate, into the spring.

The Super Tuesday contests, however, threaten to deepen divisions in both parties, racial and generational for the Democrats and conservative vs. moderate for the Republicans.

That challenges candidates in both parties who want to turn out their base of support but still hope to rally the other side behind them for the fall campaign.

The test is greater for Arizona Sen. McCain, who emerged as the Republican front-runner with a win Tuesday in Florida.

According to polls, he leads in such big delegate-rich states as Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, many of them winner-take-all contests.

He could easily win the majority of the 1,009 delegates available Tuesday.

He can’t lock up the title Tuesday, though. Even if he won every delegate in the 21 states with Republican contests, he’d be 89 short of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention this summer in St. Paul, Minn.

New York Sen. Clinton and Illinois Sen. Obama are basically the same on big issues.

They face one another Tuesday across a diverse political landscape in all corners of the country, when 1,681 delegates are up for grabs in 22 states. It will take 2,025 to secure the nomination.