Super Tuesday turned out to be not so super for the campaigns of Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, as it marked the final chapter in their missions to capture the presidency.

CNN reported Wednesday evening that Bradley would announce his resignation from the race today, and McCain was also expected to make an announcement regarding the future of his campaign.

ISU political experts said they were not surprised by the outcome of most of Tuesday’s primaries, but they were surprised by the manner in which Gore and Bush triumphed.

On the Democratic side, Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, said despite polls that showed Bradley trailing badly in nearly every Super Tuesday state, Gore’s win was still impressive.

“Gore had what could probably be called a spectacular win over Bradley,” she said.

Andy Tofilon, chairman of Cyclones for Gore, said he thought his candidate did particularly well in New England and in the all-important state of California.

“I thought Bradley would win in New England, but in the end, the vice president did better than what I expected,” said Tofilon, sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication.

Concerning Gore’s victory in the California “beauty contest,” which put candidates from all parties on one non-binding ballot, Tofilon said, nobody “can win the race without California because it is a key indicator of how the nation will vote.”

Bradley failed to win any of the states, and as expected, CNN reported that the former NBA star will announce today that he is dropping out of the race and will endorse Gore.

“I have to admit that I expected as much the way the Bradley campaign had been going,” said John Klein, member of Students for Bradley.

Klein, freshman in political science, said Bradley knew from the start it would be an enormous challenge to secure the nomination.

“A sitting vice president has never failed to win their party’s nomination,” he said. “[Bradley’s] lasting contribution to the campaign will be his ideas.”

Bystrom said based on exit polls she has seen, Gore will absorb the support of nearly all the Bradley supporters.

“With Bradley endorsing the vice president, Democrats will go easily from Bradley to Gore,” she said.

Things are not as clear-cut on the other side of the aisle, where Bush’s solid victories in key states such as New York, California and Ohio spelled the end of McCain’s surging campaign. CNN also reported Wednesday evening that McCain was expected to announce today that he is dropping out of the race.

Bystrom said that although Bush now has a clear path to the GOP nomination, it was impressive that any candidate had mounted a challenge against the heavy-spending and heavily endorsed Bush.

“It was closer than what I think [Bush] would have ever expected. Last year, everyone in the Republican party thought George W. Bush would be declared the winner of the Republican nomination by a clear margin,” she said.

Garrett Toay, chairman of Students for Bush, said he was happy with Bush’s Tuesday performance.

“I am extremely happy and surprised that he did as well as he did. He won huge wins in California, Ohio and New York,” said Toay, senior in agricultural business.

Since McCain’s campaign is now all but over, millions of the senator’s backers will have to decide which of the remaining candidates to support.

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, said McCain-Democrat voters will by and large go to Gore, but others who voted for McCain won’t be easy to predict.

“Not all of them will go to Gore,” Schmidt said. “They will be all over the place because independents and Democrats don’t like Bush that much.”

Schmidt said McCain’s main mistake was going too far in his criticism of Bush’s connection with the religious right.

“McCain got sort of excited and started attacking Bush, which he regrets now,” he said.

Though some pundits said the fierce battle between Bush and McCain might hurt Bush in the general election, Toay said Bush’s campaign was fair.

“In politics, you can’t just sit there and let them slam you. You have to defend yourself,” he said.

Schmidt said he thought Bush had swung much further to the right than he wanted to during the primary season, but that will probably change in the coming months.

“Bush is not as conservative as he is pretending,” he said. “His mom and dad aren’t that conservative. He needed to be that conservative to get the Christian Conservative vote. Even if you look at his record on the issues, he’s not that conservative. Now I think you will see him slowly move more to the center.”

Toay said he also thought Bush would begin to soften some of his more conservative stances now that the nomination is secure.

“I think McCain forced the governor to the right more than what he is. Now he can reassociate more with the moderates,” he said. “He can tailor his image more to the left. The Republicans will stay with him, but he needs to appeal more to independents by being moderate.”

Schmidt said he is looking for an equally ferocious battle of negativity in the fall when Bush and Gore square off in the general election.

“It’s going to be nasty, I think,” he said. “It is unfortunate, but in order to win a election here, you almost have to get people to hate the other guy.”