As a public service, Flip Side enables you to skip Super Tuesday election night analysis. Here we present, in advance, election analysis more informative, penetrating, and relevant than anything you will see on TV tomorrow night.
Wolf Blitzer: To make sense of tonight's extraordinary results, we turn to our panel of experts. Bill Schneider, what do you think determined tonight's election results?
Bill Schneider: The voters.
Wolf Blitzer: The voters?
Bill Schneider: Yes. While many things influenced tonight's election, the most important factor, far and away, was the voters.
Wolf Blitzer: Anderson Cooper, do you agree?
Anderson Cooper: Definitely, this seems to be one of those elections in which the voters are of paramount consequentiality.
Wolf Blitzer: And given their importance, what did the voters vote for tonight?
Anderson Cooper: Candidates. Overwhelmingly, they voted for candidates.
Suzanne Malveaux: That they did! Tonight's election came down to this: a choice between candidates.
Bill Schneider: This is a trend we noticed first in Iowa and appeared to gather steam in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Increasingly, voters are choosing between candidates.
Wolf Blitzer: To better understand why voters made the choices they did, let's turn to Candy Crowley. In tonight's election, why did voters select one candidate over another?
Candy Crowley: In a word, preference.
Wolf Blitzer: Preference – that's a word we have been hearing a lot during these primaries. Did voters again vote for candidates they preferred?
Candy Crowley: They did, in a big way. Let's look at some of our exit polling. In California, Obama received over 80 percent of the vote among voters who preferred Obama, while in New Jersey, Hillary Clinton garnered an amazing 87 percent of the voters who preferred her.
Bill Schneider: This is a trend we noticed first in Iowa and appeared to gather steam in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Preference is increasingly playing a pivotal role in the primaries.
Wolf Blitzer: Was preference also critical in the Republican contests?
Anderson Cooper: Absolutely. Polls indicate that in both parties, preference was the overriding reason why voters supported a particular candidate.
Bill Schneider: Polls indicating something is a trend we noticed first in Iowa and appeared to gather steam in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Wolf Blitzer: As you look at the results in individual states, do you notice any trends?
Anderson Cooper: In the delegate-rich bellwether states – California, New York, and Illinois – candidates with the most votes are currently leading.
Suzanne Malveaux: This is also happening in many of the smaller states. We are projecting that in Alaska, Delaware, and Idaho the winner in both party contests will be the candidate with the most votes.
Bill Schneider: This is a trend we noticed first in Iowa and appeared to gather steam in New Hampshire and South Carolina. In a primary, it is becoming increasingly difficult to defeat the candidate with the most votes.
Anderson Cooper: Earlier this evening many thought that the candidate with the least votes might triumph in Arkansas. But now it looks like the winner in Arkansas will be the candidate with the most votes.
Suzanne Malveaux: We may be witnessing a historic election. The candidate with the most votes is leading in all of the 22 states up for grabs tonight.
Wolf Blitzer: Bill, is this an historic election?
Bill Schneider: Definitely. Historic elections are a trend we noticed first in Iowa and appeared to gather steam in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
