The Newspaper

As I stated in my last post, I went to visit colleges on my week off from school. It was not an extensive tour, I did not go parading across the country, but instead focused on the New England area. I visited Suffolk University, Boston College, Providence College, and Quinnipiac University. Likewise, I had a topical tour of Northeastern University and Boston University. While I was attempting to acclimate to the harsh New England weather, I could not help but, as a student of journalism, subscribe to the theory that "you can learn a lot about a college from its newspaper." Thus, I acquired a newspaper from each college I visited. Likewise, I reviewed and examined each one. After a night of vacillation, I finally decided to pick a winner- yes in the cut throat world of college journalism there has to be a winner. Congratulations to "The Cowl" for 28 pages of good articles, commentary, and photography. But it was not all of these qualities which made me choose Providence's paper. Instead it was the intense focus around the election of 2008. All of the other papers seemed to focus on the oversaturated humanitarian efforts occurring overseas. "The Cowl," however, had a plethora of information concerning the election. As an amateur reporter, I was quite content to discover this new source. So what did I learn?

"What are delegates"- Amanda Silk (class of 2008)

Well, as I am sure you are well aware of, the reason for primary season is finite. Candidates want to win delegates, who will, in turn, vote for them at their respective conventions. "The Democrats use proportional representation to translate the popular vote to the number of delegates. The Republican system varies by state, with some states employing a 'winner take all.' To win the Democratic nomination, a candidate must win a majority of Democratic delegates. There are a total of 4,049 delegates, which means that the 'Magic Number,' or the majority, is 2,025. Currently Clinton has 232 and Obama has 158. (Note: statistics from a week ago) For a candidate to win the support of the GOP, he must win the majority of the 2,380 total Republican delegates, meaning that the Republican Magic Number is 1,191. McCain, before Romney suspended his campaign, had 97."

Then there are the SUPERDELEGATES. "Of the Democratic delegates, 796 are superdelegates. Of the Republican delegates, 463 are unpledged, and like superdelegates do not have to announce their preference."

This is probably common knowledge. However, I just want to thank Amanda Silk of Providence College's newspaper for providing such a systematic breakdown of the "delegate system." Thank you very much. I hope you learned as much as I did! Enjoy.

-JCarmel