Elections 2008 - Super Tuesday is approaching!

As promised, here is a much anticipated (at least by me) post about voting and the 2008 Presidential Election!

I'm very excited about this election year because it is the first time in my life (and not just my voting years but even in high school when politics were discussed a lot) that I have truly believed in a candidate's power to make change for the better of our country. The candidates, at least on the Democratic side, have been exuding positive energy the excites voters and makes the voting something you want to do instead of voting just to vote against someone else (which is what I did in 2004). The only direct exception I can think of is some of Hillary's negative campaigning against Obama in Iowa but since that news uproar (the whole "he just wants power as shown by the fact he said he wanted to be president in kindergarten" debacle"), I haven't heard much more about major negative campaigns by the Democrats. The Republicans are apparently getting a little nasty in South Carolina but that is just another reason my support is with Obama, who has publicly criticized the use of negative campaign strategies (An email was sent to Obama supports asking for a show of support by reaching a goal of 10,000 donors within a certain timeline. This push for fundraising was used as an endorsement of Obama's commitment to shun the use of negative campaign strategies).

I have also noticed in the last several primaries that the leaders have been so close that only a few thousand or even a few hundred have made the difference between first and second place. This is a testament to how much a vote counts! A few thousand may seem like a huge disparity but when you take into account how many people live in each state and in this country, it is a small margin. Indeed, the New Hampshire primary outcome was completely unpredicted since a large number of people who may not have voted initially came out to show support for Hillary Clinton and John McCain. A lot of news analysts have credited McCain's victory to the large number of independents who may have decided to vote in the Republican primary to support McCain instead of the Democratic primary to support Obama, since the polls were predicting a landslide victory for Obama. There is no way to know exactly how much independent voters affected the outcome of these primaries but based on discussions with individuals and general political savvy, it likely made a difference.

That being said, Obama is also expected to win Illinois by a landslide, largely due to this being his "home" state. He is our senator so we know his values, positions, and integrity. However, I still plan on voting on February 5th because I would not be able to forgive myself for not voting if he should win by a smaller than expected margin or should come in second to another candidate. The media and polls influence too much in elections and it is our responsibility as citizens to receive the information provided by the media but to make the ultimate decision of who to vote for based on our own intellect and research. It is also important to vote for your candidate even if polls say he or she will win anyways. What would happen if 3000 other people who were going to vote for that person just decided on election day that it was too cold to walk to the polling place (speaking as a Chicagoan on a very cold day). As we have seen in the past caucuses and primaries, this year of all years it is important that nothing dissuades us from letting our voices be heard in those final numbers on election day.

I'm sure I will have more to say about elections this upcoming year but for now, I hope this is enough to inspire and encourage everyone who reads this to vote, no matter which candidate you support (it would be wrong for me to only tell Obama people to vote).

Let me know if you have any additional thoughts about these elections because I'm always willing to engage in discussions about politics as many of you know.

And last, but not least, I will give you one reason to vote for Obama (I feel a list coming at a later date...). You can get "free" Obama ringtones on his website (you may have to pay a few cents for the 30sec it takes to connect to the internet to download). Enough said.