Politics!

Barack Obama now has the best odds of winning the presidency coming November according to Las Vegas. Not that I’d wager on something like this, but it’s a surprisingly good indicator of how everyone’s doing in the polls and primaries because Vegas really does their research. Clinton was the clear favorite until only recently. She’s seen as one of, if not the the best qualified, but the least “likeable”. I don’t necessarily buy her as the most experienced though because being the First Lady isn’t an elected position. She just had pull. Now her campaign is basically in panic-mode trying to win the next primary.

The democratic side of things is a three man race, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. Bill Richardson is still actively campaigning, but last week ended with Joe Biden and Chris Dodd dropping out of the race. To me, Obama serves as the country’s best opportunity to initiate effective change and redefine America’s identity and reputation abroad. I couldn’t say that any of the other candidates have that type of potential when it comes to accomplishing these things on such a grand scale. I don’t think anyone else is thinking as big or is as inspirational as he is.

With the Republicans, it’s still wide open, but John McCain gets the slight nod as the favorite according to Vegas. Huckabee won Iowa, but the main reason for his victory was the Christian conservative vote, and that success doesn’t carry over across the board. Romney is getting a lot of attention and appeals hugely to conservatives (for reasons I can’t see) and Giuliani is showing poorly but this is because he did not “actively” campaign in the earlier states. Giuliani is planning on making noise in the later states, like New York and Florida but this will probably bite him in the balls. If McCain became president, he’d be nearly 80 years old by the last year of his second term. He even edged out George W. in the New Hampshire primaries nearly eight years ago. He also has the record for most Daily Show appearances of all time (with 15-20), so I feel like I’ve seen him a lot more than the other Republicans. And even though him and Jon Stewart butt political heads on most issues he never looks incompetent. Ron Paul would be my choice for the Republicans, but he’s a former Libertarian and probably won’t jive with mainstream conservatives.

Good reading material:

http://www.rockthevote.org
http://www.pollingreport.com/2008.htm
http://www.time.com