What Dreams are made of

By Staff
Kim West
I'm looking forward to several events in January, including the local county basketball tournaments, Bowl Championship Series national championship game and the NFL playoffs.
But there is something more important than a sporting event happening this month – the official beginning of the 2008 presidential election. There are eight candidates in the Democratic race, while seven are vying for the Republican nomination.
Voters in Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Nevada (Democratic only) and Wyoming (Republican only) will kick off the presidential race this month by casting votes in either caucuses or primaries. (Alabama's primary is Feb. 5.)
Iowa's voters gathered at hundreds of voting precincts last night to elect county delegates who are responsible for choosing the state's delegates to the national conventions. Iowans take pride in being the first state to hold caucuses because the Democratic and Republican winners of these elections are often considered their respective parties' front-runners by the media and political pundits. But keep in mind that President Bush and former President Bill Clinton didn't win the Iowa caucuses.
I read a story earlier this week that commented on the intensity of the Iowa caucuses, so I called a former college classmate who now works for Democratic hopeful John Edwards' Iowa campaign. I asked her about the campaigning atmosphere and all she could say without the approval of Edwards' press director was that his campaign had been working on the caucuses since last May. And this is for an election that doesn't involve actual voting for a presidential candidate.
Right now it looks like Edwards and Barack Obama are Hilary Rodham Clinton's main challengers for the Democratic nomination, while Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are the main Republican contenders, along with John McCain, Fred Thomspon and Mike Huckabee.
The next presidential debate is tomorrow night at 7 p.m. on ABC, and there's only one bowl game Saturday, and it's Rutgers against Ball State on ESPN2 with an 11 a.m. kickoff.
So why not tune into the debate and watch as both parties' candidates will attempt to stand out among a very crowded field of presidential hopefuls?