Our nation’s future relies on the shoulders of one of these people….

Who will you be voting for?

The Nearby Future’s Political Cheat Sheet on 2008 Elections

Note: This page will be updated as the year progresses.

The Deal

Remember that time you ran for president in a school election? Remember? Sure you do. Everyone has ran for some office sometime in their lives, for whatever reason. What does every election have in common? The winner is usually A) good looking B) Popular or C) Has a good speech that sounds good, whether or not it actually accomplishes everything.

So here’s the deal; when you go to vote for our next president (assuming you’re the legal voting age), don’t vote on whoever is the best looking, or most important. Vote on people who YOU think won’t get us into some crazy nuclear war that turns out to be our demise. With 2012 coming, some people are leaving the election up to ‘fate’ saying that whoever wins will just help explode our planet. I am not considered under the category ’some people’ and neither should you.

The Candidates

Imagine you are James Bond. You have just infiltrated enemy headquarters (with some really amazingly good luck on your side and the Hollywood theory that the hero always has to prevail on important missions) and you have to stop the nuclear bomb hitting Earth. (Cheesy plot, I know, but I’m trying to make this simple!) You walk up to the unusually simple control panel to find two buttons: a red one, and a green one. Which one do you press? The green one looks better…. and it’s closer to you. Should you press it? This IS an incredibly important choice…

Choosing who you want to be president is almost as important as choosing a button that might destroy or save the Earth- but it’s close. You SHOULDN’T leave your choice up to luck- what you should be doing is reading on to see your candidate choices.

Main Republican Candidates:

• Mike Huckabee: A former Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee wants to lower taxes.

Abortion: Huckabee supports a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.

Education: Supports No Child Left Behind.

Gun Control: Opposes laws that outlaw guns.

Illegal Immigration: Huckabee is for tightening the Northern and Southern border controls.

Iraq: Believes that setting a time for troops to leave is a mistake and that they should stay in Iraq as long as needed.

Medicare: Opposes any type of negotiation with drug makers and opposes buying drugs from Canada.

Social Security: Supports personal retirement savings. Opposes raising the retirement age.

• John McCain: Senator from Arizona, this well known senator is up at bat for the second time. He lost to George Bush during another presidential election.

Abortion: He opposes abortion except in certain cases.

Education: McCain praises the “no child left behind” plan, although he says that it is flawed under the areas of testing students with disabilities and students that don’t speak English.

Gun control: McCain sees gun control as an unwise idea. I believe that he thinks it will be as bad as prohibition was to the nation- encouraging crime instead of abolishing it.

Illegal Immigration: As for illegal immigration, he supported giving all illegal immigrants amnesty, but his campaign slipped because of all the opposition towards this.

Iraq: John McCain thinks that the Pentagon should be the one deciding when to send in and remove troops. He praises Bush’s ‘troop surge’ plan.

Medicare: For McCain, negotiation is good. He wants to Medicare negotiate with drug makers and let people buy drugs from Canada. He believes that prices of Medicare should be changed to encourage better management of chronic diseases.

Social Security: McCain opposes raising the retirement age, and supports individual retirement accounts.

• Ron Paul: A representative from Texas, Ron Paul has been labeled as a libertarian. A libertarian is a “One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state.” (From dictionary.com)

Abortion: Ron Paul is strongly against abortion, but also believes that the State should decide whether or not to ban abortion.

Education: Paul thinks that it should be the State’s job to overlook education, not Captial Hill’s.

Gun Control: He opposes banning firearms, and sees school shootings, plane hijacks and other situations like this a cause of the laws banning self-defense.

Illegal Immigration: Ron Paul strongly opposes giving amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Iraq: Has opposed the war in Iraq from the start.

Health Care: Wants to pass a bill that decreases the cost of healthcare for families.

Social Security: Paul has an interesting idea that young Americans should be able to opt out of social security if they chose and not have to pay taxes.

• Mitt Romney: Apparently, Mitt Romney has “suspended his campaign” because of financial issues. In other words, he’s given up. He won’t be able to enter back into the race except under special circumstances. For example, if John McCain wins on the republican side, but dies of a heart attack, and all the other republican candidates are illegible, Romney is a substitute.

Main Democrat Candidates:

• Hillary Clinton: A former first lady and currently a senator, Hillary Clinton would be the first woman as a president if elected.

Abortion: Opposes banning abortion.

Education: Wants to change No Child Left Behind.Gun Control: Says law abiding citizens should be able to own guns, but that laws should be put into place to stop criminals from getting guns.

Illegal Immigration: Supports a huge 700 mile fence along the Mexican border and wants to hire more border patrol agents.

Iraq: Wants to quickly withdraw troops.

Medicare: Agrees with pretty much every Medicare issue: buying drugs from Canada, negotiating prices with drug dealers, the works.

Social Security: Opposes diverting social security money into private accounts.

• Barrack Obama: Also a senator, Obama would be the first African American president if elected. It has been a close match against Hillary Clinton; in a February 6th newspaper results have shown that he won 12 states in the Super Tuesday, whereas Hillary only won 8.

Abortion: Opposes banning abortion.

Education: Supports No Child Left Behind.

Gun Control: Obama wants to set in place some tougher gun control laws.

Illegal Immigration: Like Hillary, Obama approves of building a fence along the Mexican border.

Iraq: Wants all troops out in 16 months- but wants to keep a small amount in Iraq to try and watch over the government for a while.

Medicare: Obama believes in pretty much the same medicare standards as Hillary Clinton. He approves of allowing medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers, letting people buy drugs from Canada, speeding generic drugs to the market, and reforming health care.

Social Security: Does not approve of letting workers divert money for social security into private accounts.

The Staff’s Opinions

Rika: I think McCain has got some good ideas- I agree with his position on abortion completely. Roe vs. Wade should be overturned. However, I believe that we should just withdraw all our troops from Iraq- and I think it should be up to Capital Hill and the Pentagon to both decide how to remove troops. I completely agree with Obama- removing troops from Iraq in 16 months is a great idea. Another thing: All of the illegal immigrants that are already here should be granted amnesty. It’s absurd that we would even consider trying to root out some 5 million illegal immigrants already here. But I do think we should tighten up border control- I agree with Hillary Clinton on that.

All the candidates have pretty decent plans. I’m still making up my mind on who’s plan I like the best- they all have a little bit of both. Out of the Democrats, I think Obama is the best choice. In the Republican section, I think McCain is the best choice.

Calister F. Wells: I think that Obama has the best ideas- but I think Hillary has more experience. Agree with Huckabee’s Iraq position- setting a time to remove troops will just create mass chaos in Iraq and screw up everything we’ve worked so hard to fix! Troops should stay there as long as need be, which couldn’t be too much longer. I think in the end it will be Huckabee verses Hillary unless Obama somehow beats her. I’m not quite sure who it’s going to be on the democrat’s side.

Updates:

So now you’ve read our views, the condensed political views, and some other information, you probably want to know who is leading in the polls. This is the space where we’ll be showing you just that.

It seems that it’s going to be McCain verses Obama. Obama has been leading so far, and McCain looked like the obvious candidate from the start. -Rika, 2/16/08

I think Obama’s going to win. -Calister F. Wells 3/7/08

Well, McCain is the definite republican candidate. Hillary Clinton has caught up in the political race, so the democratic candidate is up for grabs. Who’s going to win? -Rika 3-26-08

This gilded contest is far from over- even though Senator Obama and Senator McCain are the only candidates left. I hope our nation chooses wisely on the next leader of our free world. -Rika 6-12-08