ICloud to Mac Address Book - Two Questions

Okay, I have learned/accepted that iCloud is not the sync'ing deal that MobileMe was (missed that in the fine print as I have been a loyal .mac user from its inception and like the MM syncing). I understand that everything is updated in the cloud and pushed to various devices (for me, iPhone 4S, new iPad and 2009 MBP).  So, how is it possible for my iCloud address book to have more contacts than my MBP address book?  Wouldn't all of the ones in iCloud be pushed to the MBP?  The only thing I can think is that before I understood the concept that there are two address books resident on the MBP, I starting deleting what I thought were duplicates since I wasn't able to merge them due to two different sources.  I could not find a way at that time to tell me which line was from what source.  Then, once I get the two address books matching - mostly to ensure that I am not missing anything in the iCloud one - what purpose does the Mac based address book serve?  I just had a nightmare of dragging various cards from my iCloud address page on the right into the iCloud group on the left and only to realize after doing at least 20 cards that after the first one, the left page registers back up putting the Mac based group across from the iCloud contact list so I dropped many of them into the Mac group instead of the iCloud group. The iCal doesn't maintain a Mac version and an iCloud version, why does the address book?  BTW, all software on all devices is up to date as of this posting.

Please pardon what may be a silly question.  This is my first ever post...
I was thinking about deleting "On My Mac" address book per your above instructions, and sticking with the one iCloud contacts.  The problem I am afraid of running into is this:  In iTunes, when I sync contacts, the groups that show available for syncing all come from "On My Mac".  If I delete from the Mac, will that make my "Contacts" icon on my iPad 'dead'?  Thereby, forcing me to log onto iCloud to view my Contacts, instead of a handy shortcut??? 
Or will I simply get to forgo the iTunes syncing... and the "contacts" icon on my iPad will reflect what was synced thru iCloud?
If the latter is true, does that simply mean I will need to recreate my "groups" in iCloud?
Thanks in advance, I certainly need some guidance.

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