The Presidential Rat Race for 08: The Fine Print

Its a dog eat dog world out there and everybody wants to be Alpha Dog, but I'm still not convinced by many of the presidential hopefuls. It is still a great deal of hype and little substance floating to the surface.

Among the Democratic Hopefuls:

Hillary Clinton - Let's face it, she's got name recognition. Like Xerox and FedEx, Hillary Clinton is more than a presidential candidate, she's a democratic brand; people go with the name they know, and that's called electability. However, anyone who listens close enough to her rhetoric will notice that there really isn't anything new under the sun. How much of what she's saying is really making a difference to the average voter? Is her idea of "making college accessible and affordable" more student loans? "Confronting growing problems in the housing market" does not mean that you've solved them; it just means you've acknowledged them. What matters is that she's been saying it for 35 years. Key word: experience.

Barack Obama - He's the super star, the democratic Denzel Washington, if you will, whose going to change the face of Washington much like Denzel changed the face of modern American cinema. But even Denzel lost at the Golden Globes. But hey, its always good to be nominated. In Obama's case, it would be really good to be nominated. He's got his eye on the poor and wants to fund programs to help them get a leg up, so to speak. My problem with him is that he wants to do it at the expense of the middle class, putting more squeeze on those stuck in the middle.

John Edwards - They say he has "Kennedy-esque good looks". Oh, if only this were a beauty campaign and not a presidential campaign. In some respects, it is just about appearances; Edwards' problem is he just can't seem to get his face in a space that's not occupied by Hillary or Barack. Even during interviews with him, pundits always ask about Hillary's campaign. He's come in a decent 2^nd or a distant 3^rd place in the primaries, and union voters, his targeted audience, have gravitated towards Barack Obama - always a bridesmaid and never a bride. Keyword: hope.