Acorn

Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Drew Cranisky

It would have been difficult to turn on the news this January without hearing talk about the upcoming presidential election.

Democrats, Republicans and the unaffiliated alike have been eagerly tuning in to see get a better idea of what's going to happen this November.

Those Drewids who aren't lucky enough to live in one of the starter states-Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, etc.-have the opportunity to cast absentee ballots to help decide their party's candidate this year. I, however, will be abstaining.

This may make me the worst political science major in history-but I couldn't care less about the primaries. It's not that I'm not politically minded. It's not because I don't care about this country.

I just don't think filing into a voting booth to be able to choose the choice you want to choose several months from now is a smart use of my time.

The entire process baffles me.

Why am I investing time and energy into learning about all the candidates the Democrats and the Republicans have to offer, if, in one month's time, the vast majority of them aren't going to matter to me at all?

All things considered, I'm most likely going to vote for the Democratic candidate.

But, quite frankly, I'm finding it hard to choose between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and I resent being forced to choose between these two worthy candidates this early on in the election season just because the two people I like the most are from the same political party.

Wouldn't it be in the country's best interest to have a full array of candidates to pick from come November?

Instead, the Democrats and Republicans spend months in internal struggle to pick their champion completely disregarding the fact that there is no reason they should have to pick only one.

True, voter turnout hasn't been as high as we could hope in the past. But do you really think having more choices is going to increase that problem? If anything, I think it would make things better. Take Obama and Clinton, for example. If Clinton wins the nomination, how many Obama supporters do you honestly think are going to come out and confidently cast their vote for Clinton in the fall? Sure, many might choose her as the lesser of two evils.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? So any Democrat is better than a Republican.

Continued...

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