Approximately a half a day behind my current time, the 2008 presidential election in the US will begin. According to news sources and polls, the front runners are senators Barack Obama (Democrat) and John McCain (Republican). Are they the only choices? Of course not.

The Official Candidates

Just because the two senators mentioned garnered all the publicity during their respective campaigns, they're not the only people running for President of United States. There's a list of all the candidates, along with their running mates (for vice-president), their parties and their websites at Wikipedia's "United States presidential election, 2008".

If you're an American, you owe it to yourself to investigate each and every candidate before casting your vote. If you don't like the choices you're given, you have the opportunity to "write in" the name or names of the people you'd prefer to see in office.

Cast an Educated Vote

I wrote, at one time, that I hate politics. My position hasn't changed. I vote based on who I think will do a better job of serving the country, not based on some political affiliation. I will not tell you who to vote for or why and I won't tell you who I vote for or why. That decision is solely up to you.

I urge you, however, to cast an educated vote. Don't vote with your emotions or along party lines just for their sakes alone. Think about the next four years and make sure you're going to be as comfortable with your choices at the end of those four years as you are today.

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