The presidential candidates wish you a Happy Holidays. Rough days for some of the candidates. Fun facts about the presidential candidates, страница 4

"Younger people must try to get involved in politics. It is our future we are talking about here. Young people with good heart and intentions should consider it. By God's grace I will make a difference in my country, Nigeria."

"YES!!! Young people in office leads to younger voters!"

What political issues do young Americans care about? Who do they want to vote for? Learn more about young Americans here.

07 December 2007

Mitt Romney discusses his faith

Republican and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the first Mormon candidate for president, discussed his faith for the first time today. His speech was seen as an opportunity to reach evangelical Christians who are strong Republican supporters. Some evangelicals wonder if Romney shares their same values.

In his 20-minute speech, Romney only said the word “Mormon” once. “Some believe such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy,” he said. “If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people.” Romney also said that if elected, he would serve no one religion.

Many compared today’s speech to one given by another candidate from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. In 1960, before he became the United States’ first Catholic president, Kennedy gave a speech about his faith in a speech that many say contributed to the success of his campaign.

Will today’s speech help Romney’s campaign? Evangelicals are an important voting block that can influence the outcome of races in Iowa and South Carolina – two of the first states to vote in the 2008 race.

05 December 2007

Clinton attacks Obama's record ... his elementary school record

As Campaign Trail Talk has mentioned, the first votes in the 2008 presidential race will be cast in less than a month. With both parties in tight races, the negative rhetoric is heating up. It seems just about every candidate is a target of another's character attacks.

On the Democratic side, much of the attention has been focused on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who seem to be stepping up their attacks on each other as they vie for the nomination.

On December 2, in an attempt to counter an attack made by Obama, the Clinton campaign issued a press release accusing Obama of not telling the truth when he said "I have not been planning to run for president for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for." The evidence the Clinton campaign cited: Obama wrote essays in elementary school about wanting to be president. These essays, the press release says, indicate Obama has been planning his run for a long time.

Having received much criticism over the incident, the Clinton campaign now says this attack was meant as a joke. But it serves as a good reminder that negative campaigning, while sometimes very effective, has risks. Learn more about the political strategy behind character attacks here.

Would you vote for a candidate who says bad things about another candidate? Weigh in on the USINFO Elections Quick Poll.

05 December 2007

With first votes looming, no clear front-runners

With less than a month left before the Iowa caucuses, the first 2008 nominating event, polls show the races for both the Republican and Democratic nominee are closer than ever.

A national USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton are losing their large leads. In the past month, Giuliani slipped 9 percentage points and Clinton fell 11 points, but they both are still on top. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee jumped from fifth place to second.

Political experts cite many reasons for this change, the largest one-month decline for both Giuliani and Clinton. One possible reason is that as the primary elections near, Americans are paying closer attention to the race and not simply voicing a candidate preference based on name recognition.