Who Are the 2008 Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates?

It's been an interesting election year... or more correctly year before the election year. This is one of the longest campaigns in modern elections. There are eighteen candidates searching to be president but only six real contenders namely, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson. Of these candidates, five have been senators (Giuliani is the exception,) however there is a much varied history between the candidates beyond that.

Hillary Clinton had been a prominent much of her life until Bill Clinton started getting involved in politics. She served as First Lady of Arkansas and then of the United States where she took a very proactive role in many of Bill's policy. She particularly pushed much health care legislation which had a strong impact with the creation of the Children's Health Insurance Plan. She became New York's first woman senator in 2000 and was reelected in 2006 to a second term. In polls, Hillary tends to come out on top of the Democratic contenders, however, she is only viewed favorably by 50% of likely voters.

John Edwards was deemed the "sexiest politician alive" in 2000 and is something that follows him around today. After being North Carolina's junior senator for one term from 1999-2006 and losing as John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 presidential election, Edwards stepped out of the pure politics for two years but worked with a Wall Street firm for a short time. His ambition to be president seems to be an unlikely long shot but so did it seem for his running mate, it often comes down to Iowa. By making a good show in Iowa, perhaps Edwards can breathe new life into his campaign.

Once thought to be the strongest contender for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama, the first-term junior senator from Illinois seems to be stuck as the second banana. He seems to be a possible contender for the Vice Presidential nomination should Hillary Clinton win the nomination. He is a well-liked national figure, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and is the only African-American senator currently serving in the United States senate.