Today--known by the media and political campaigners as "Super Tuesday"--will likely be a pivotal day in the 2008 presidential race. For the first time, enough delegates are able to be won to give a candidate their parties nomination. For the Democrats, 2,064 delegates can be won. Either of the two candidates--Clinton and Obama--could surpass the 2,025 delegates needed to win the Democratic Party nomination. Similarly, there are 1,069 Republican delegates that can be won today.

However, what is interesting is the extent to which the media has largely ignored the process of winning delegates and actually earning the nomination. In a rush to narrow down the race to the two final major party candidates, the media has consistently ignored delegate totals. As of today, there was the following breakdown of delegates won:

What is never said is that the majority of candidates dropped out of the race long before enough delegates were awarded to place them too far behind in the race. To be sure, there are a number of factors at work--media bias towards particular candidates, discrepancies in funding, polls, and the internal maneuverings of the Democratic and Republican parties--but it is worth thinking about. However, one thing is certain--the less candidates that are in the race, the less choice that the voters have.