Game On

Ladies and gentleman welcome to the heated race that is the 2008 Presidential Election! Wait a second, does that really say the "2008 Presidential Election" or did I just make a spellig error? No, you read correctly, and I made no spelling mistake, we really are talking about the 2008 Presidential race. The '08 election may be over a year away, but already we are are hearing so much about it, and the race is becoming quite heated already that one might think the election is this November. This is quite an exciting time to be following politics.

So one might ask, if the election is over a year away why is the public being bombarded with so much information about something that is still so far way? The people don't even know who the fianl two candidates are going to be yet, but there is still so much coverage and talk about it. In my opinion there are a couple reasons for this:

1.) The '08 election presents a unique case that has not presented itself in politics for many years. The situation in '08 is that there is no imcumbent candidate running, nor is there a vice president running. In most other elections at least one side has a candidate that is pretty much pre-chosen. If the sitting president is on his first term than chances are he will run again and automatically gets the parties nomination. If the sitting president is in his second term, than in most cases the vice president will run, and he also pretty mcuh has a lock on the parties nomination. But in this election Vice President Cheney is not running therefore leaving the field wide open on both sides to select a candidate in the primary.

2.) The country is more polarized now than ever. President Bush's two terms in office have been a roller coaster ride that started with 9/11 and have taken us into the Iraq war, and everything in between. Because of everything that has happened during his presidency the country is now very divided. President Bush has hit record lows in approval ratings, and frankly all signs seem to be pointing towards the country wanting a change. Having an ongoing war that the next president will have to inherit just makes the election that much more high profile. Knowing that this president will not be finishing the war makes the media and the public that much more interested in what the possible future president will be doing with it, therefore lifting the profile of the election to new heights for this stage in the race.

As I stated earlier this is quite an exciting time to be following politics, and specifically this election. Just this past week after General Petreaus gave his update on the Iraq war, Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani attacked Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton over her remarks regarding the General's report. With stories like this one would think that Giuliani and Clinton had one their parties respective nominations and were the only two candidates. This is usually the time in the campaign when you hear the candidates take shots at the others running for thier parties nomination, but then again this is no ordinary election.

I strongly urge everyone to start following this election closely. If it's so enjoyable to follow at this stage just imagine how much interesting it's going to get in the next year plus. All I have to say to the candidates is, GAME ON!