Welcome to Gaia! ::

Now that it is '08, I do feel that there is a need for such a thread. No, we're not all American here. However, I do think that even non-Americans would have a preference so far as who exactly gets into office. For example, does anyone really want another Bush? No? I didn't think so. So, here we have a whole lot of candidates. There are a lot of people in the running, folks, mostly because our Democratic and Republican National Conventions have not yet occurred. I'm going to arrange them by party affiliation, and then by alphabetical order by last name.

DEMOCRATS

Clinton, Hillary
If anything, Clinton has name recognition. Her husband, Bill, having previously served as president, she's probably as familiar as one can get with the White House without actually being president. As far as social programmes go, she's supportive of pretty much all of them. Including, yes, taxes. Universal health care is a priority of hers, and she states that she plans on making such a program required for all citizens. Her sweeping plans for Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and other similar programmes will take money, which takes either budget cuts in other areas or greater revenue from taxes. Environmentally, she supports conservation and doing what presidents have somehow managed to avoid for all this time: ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.
On immigration, she seems to be split. Though she denounced a bill that would impose harsher penalties on undocumented workers, she is against granting illegal immigrants drivers' licenses and voted in favor of the Secure Fence Act.
Her foreign policy is similar. She states Iran as being a threatening state which sponsors terrorist activities, but is also in favor of pulling out of Iraq as soon as is humanly possible. And by possible, she doesn't mean when the killing stops. She means as soon as she gets into office.
She supports a federal ban on firearms, says that abortion should be the choice of the woman and not of the state, and serves on the Committee of Environment and Public Works. However, she is also in favor of the death penalty.
In the Iowa Caucuses, Clinton finished third, behind Senator Barack Obama and Senator John Edwards. However, in the New Hampshire Primaries, she finished ahead of both of them.

Edwards, John
For social programmes, Edwards, too, supports all of them, including a likely increase in the amount of income taxed for people in the highest income brackets. He supports universal health care, though in a somewhat different fashion than do Clinton and Obama. His plan calls for required insuring of minors (under the age of eighteen), and for all employers to offer health care to their employees. However, his mandate does not extend to those over the age of eighteen; though they must be offered the option of health care, they are not required to actually take it. However, as mentioned at an Iowa debate, "Why would anyone not want health care?"
The fight against global warming is one of his main concerns. He is in favor of capping emissions, lowering the standards every year, and of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by the year 2050.
His views on immigration including making more visas available to workers.
As far as foreign policy goes, ... TO BE CONTINUED!!!

I'd appreciate some help on this, by the way. Yes, Krego, I'm looking at you. A bit of backup, especially on the Republicans that I know little to nothing about (I only know about Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee, and that's because I despise them), would be much appreciated.

If I was given a seat I was actually going to make a sticky for each candidate as well as discussion threads where people can add to whats there...and naturally discuss things lol.

I think I should make a thread about Shahid Malik, and what a t**t he is. It would be rather pointless as you don't know who he is, but Danny Lockwood is awesome.