So how many students are keeping up with the Democratic Party’s primaries? Yawn, me neither, considering the media already chose Clinton and Obama a long time ago (an issue of Time magazine ran last year with a caption about who the next nominee would be and only had a picture of Clinton and Obama).

The Republican race, however, is a political nut’s wet dream. A year ago, most pundits thought ‘9/11! 9/11!’ Giuliani was the sure-fire candidate. His strategy of waiting until the Florida primary may have been his downfall since the two unheard of candidates (Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee) are now household names. McCain is also a front-runner. Even the fanatical Ron Paul backers (me included) are excited about his second-place finish in Nevada.

Even our liberal professors have to be watching for reasons other than having fodder to use against conservatives (and libertarians because we are so heartless) as they sneer down from their ivory towers.

So far there are three front-runners who have all won at least one primary, and Ron Paul’s fan base is growing to be more than just a blip in the polls – although the media are doing their best to hide his second-place finish. Some (foolish) liberals point to the three front-runners, saying the party is split and there is no way the Republicans can amass a win because of it. Just because a person’s candidate does not become the nominee does not mean they will not turn out to vote or that they will vote for the opposing party, especially when the Democrats are offering up such mediocrity in place of real candidates.

Clinton is in the pockets of the arms industry, not to forget big business in general. Anyone who is against the war would be foolish at best to support the New York senator. Although she has recently recanted her stance on the war in Iraq, she is for using military involvement to deal with Iran. No wonder the arms industry is dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into her war chest.

While Obama may have voted against the war, he has his own demons to worry about. He is inexperienced as a politician, enjoys playing the race card a little too much and is also a hypocrite. While crying out that large vehicles were partially to blame for global warming, he drives gas guzzling vehicles himself such as the V8 Chrysler 300C and SUVs. According to the Detroit News, Obama has since switched to a hybrid – after it came out that he was part of the problem.

There is little doubt the Republican candidates have their own skeletons, but for liberals to act like Obama and Clinton are squeaky clean and a sure thing is ignorant.

Personally, no presidential candidate looks good to me except former 1988 Libertarian Party candidate, Texas congressman Ron Paul. His nomination, however, is a long shot at best. More than likely I will be writing him in as a candidate or voting for Libertarian Party candidate Steve Kubby (who is not running unless Paul loses the nomination). One thing can be sure of, I will not be voting for someone who is in bed with the arms industry like Clinton or ‘if you do not vote for me you are racist’ Obama.

Ted Hamilton is a senior magazine journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].