Super Bowl and Super Tuesday both events worthy of watching
Part of Our World
Dan Rather

Every year, professional football fans hope for the big game to be a good game, too, an epic clash, a nailbiter, an upset. Most years, though, the Super Bowl falls well short of the pregame hype - which causes us to remember all the more fondly those that do, like Super Bowl III with Broadway Joe Namath's guaranteed victory or Super Bowl XXXIV with "The Tackle" that cemented the Rams' triumph over the Titans.

Political junkies are much like pigskin junkies in this regard. Every four years we look at the players, assess the playing field, extrapolate and prognosticate the drama that could emerge, and - more often than not - we are disappointed as presidential long shots give way to sure things.

I hope that you will forgive an old reporter an extended sports analogy.

It's just that it's an exceptionally propitious time to be a lover of both football and electoral politics.

The advent of this election season was accompanied by more than the usual helping of anticipation.

Even before the first candidate officially declared, we knew that it was highly probable (barring what would have been a truly surprising decision by Dick Cheney to run) that it would be the first general election since 1952 in which neither the Republicans nor the Democrats would field an incumbent president or vice president.

And it would be the first since 1928 in which an incumbent would not be campaigning in the primaries.

What's been so gratifying is the degree to which these general expectations have been born out - and all in a way that has managed to completely confound expectations on the specifics.

Choose your story line: John McCain's stunning comeback or Rudy Giuliani's precipitous fall; Barack Obama's bid for history, or Hillary Clinton's or Mitt Romney's; Mike Huckabee's brief rise or John Edwards' slow fade ... it's all adding up to a primary season, foreshortened though it is, for the ages.

Soon, almost too soon, it may all be over. The mother of all Super Tuesdays looms, a continent spanning contest that will see California, New York, Illinois, and 21 other states hold primaries. Will McCain convert the advances he made in Florida? Will a clear favorite emerge from the back-and-forth between Clinton and Obama?

With so many delegates at stake on one day, Super Tuesday could well be decisive.

But don't listen to anyone who tells you he or she knows how it will turn out, based on results from the states that have voted thus far.

It's worth bearing in mind that there will be states voting this coming Tuesday in which candidates have scarcely set foot, and to which they have not made personal, tailored appeals.

This will provide as close a gauge of the national mood as you are likely to see until Election Day, and not only do we not know what will motivate the votes of the party faithful, we have no idea how concerns over specific issues such as Iraq or the economy will affect the fates of the various candidates.

And then there's the possibility that neither party will emerge from Super Tuesday with a clear victor.

Every four years, politicos like to talk about the chance of a brokered convention, and every four years, they are disappointed.

But this year your reporter has heard even seasoned pros on both sides of the political fence discuss such a possibility with a seriousness that is truly new. That would be the ultimate reward for the political observer: a battle for the soul of our major parties and for the future of our country - gone into overtime.

Dan Rather, a native of Wharton, was Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years. His column appears by arrangement with King Features Syndicate.