A familiar face from the hit TV series Law and Order will be popping up on your screen soon, in the form of a 2008 Republican Candidate for the Presidential Election. Fred Thompson, a lawyer, famous actor, and former Tennessee U.S. Senator announced on September 5, 2007 that he was indeed running for presidency, rumors of which had been circulating for months beforehand. Since his official announcement to run, Fred Thompson has been experiencing great leaps in the polls, especially unusual for a candidate entering the race so late. Fred Thompson has started to slowly eclipse John McCain and Mitt Romney, two other Republican candidates, and is now closing in on Rudy Giuliani, The highest Republican in recent polls.
Fred Thompson has let his stance on various positions be known, both recently and from his term as a U.S. Senator. Fred Thompson can be categorized as pro-economy, stating the he believes in free-trade and low taxes. Fred Thompson has also stated that he is Pro-Life, but he also believes that women should not be criminalized for early term abortions. Fred Thompson has also addressed his beliefs towards the conflict in Iraq and controversially said he does not support a withdrawal.
Fred Thompson is widely supported throughout the United States, and is known as a very down to earth man. While a U.S. Senator of Tennessee, Fred Thompson did not buy a home in D.C. and instead bought a couch to sleep on. When asked why, Thompson stated that he did not want to send any more bills home to Tennessee. Although the Republican Primary candidate is still up in the air, Fred Thompson is definitely a top contender.
With new candidates coming out of the woodwork seemingly almost daily, the 2008 presidential election is forecasted to be a heavily contested one. The two primary parties, Democrats and Republicans, both find themselves in an internal struggle to produce a worthy candidate. The most recognizable name in the pool of candidates for the Democrats would have to be Hillary Clinton, wife of the former president Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a current Senate member representing the state of New York, where she has been elected by a wide margin in the past two elections.
A whirlwind of controversy surrounds Hillary Clinton in her run for presidency as she would be the first female to be elected president. There has been some recent criticism towards Hillary Clinton for her see-saw political agenda, the primary example being her stance on War in Iraq.
Hillary Clinton set the stage to enter a political career during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton. Hillary broke away from the normal tasks of the First Lady and took a prominent position in political matters. The Clinton Health Care Plan was a bill that Hillary took great pride in, although it failed due to lack of approval by Congress. Although her primary bill never passed, Hillary produced various laws that are now in effect.
Hillary Clinton held a comfortable lead in the first half of 2007, with her two major competitors, Barack Obama and John Edwards, lagging behind in the polls. Hillary Clinton also had a substantial lead in fundraising, although one of her major contributors came back to haunt her. Norman HSU, who had raised a great deal of money for Clinton’s presidential race, was found to be a fugitive in an old investment fraud case. Hillary managed to maintain a lead in the polls even through this controversy and still maintained a lead in fundraising. At the most recent Democratic debate in October, Hillary gave a lackluster performance and was hammered by the other Democratic candidates. This poor performance at a crucial debate may set Hillary back in future polls.
Without voters no democracy could take place, and there would in turn be no election. At some time during every presidential campaign the topic of voter turnout becomes important, this election will be no different. Every candidate, no matter what party they are a member of, will at some point work to encourage more people to vote. Generally the candidates not only work to encourage registered voters to actually vote, but they often encourage the youngest voting generation to register and vote for the first time. When someone votes for the first time they are legally allowed to it makes it much more likely that they will continue to vote for the rest of their lives. This is an important aspect of any election due to vast amount of votes to be won from this area. A candidate can win votes from this by encouraging people to vote, the candidate not only encourages them to vote but also helps them with registering as well as other things. All of this makes the candidate look better and raises the chance of him or her receiving that person’s vote.
Year after year the voter turnout in America is a very low percentage of those who are actually eligible to vote. The most recent vote turnout data shows that just under 50% of the people within the voting age actually voted in the 2000 election. This low percentage is actually an improvement over the 1996 election albeit a small improvement. This improvement is encouraging to everyone, but political parties and candidates still have lots of work ahead of them to win thevote of new voters through campaigns such as “Rock the Vote” and “Get Out the Vote”. Both of these projects are designed to encourage younger generations to register and vote, as well as encourage older citizens to vote in upcoming elections. Commonly people choose not to vote because they think their vote “isn’t important” little do they know that their vote is extremely important to the American democratic process. Often presidential candidates will directly say “your vote is important to me” in reality that candidate is correct, each vote is of extreme importance. Each individual vote might not have any direct impact on the outcome of the election, but a large group of non-voting citizens can have a dramatic effect on an election when they start voting. Overall the American system of democracy is based on the voter, and without them the system will fall apart.
Hillary Clinton held a comfortable lead in the first half of 2007, with her two major competitors, Barack Obama and John Edwards, lagging behind in the polls. Hillary Clinton also had a substantial lead in fundraising, although one of her major contributors came back to haunt her. Norman HSU, who had raised a great deal of money for Clinton’s presidential race, was found to be a fugitive in an old investment fraud case. Hillary managed to maintain a lead in the polls even through this controversy and still maintained a lead in fundraising. At the most recent Democratic debate in October, Hillary gave a lackluster performance and was hammered by the other Democratic candidates. This poor performance at a crucial debate may set Hillary back in future polls.
