Next up in the race to be the next leader of the Not So Free World is Michigan. The polls opened in MI today to a somewhat limited Democratic side (the DNC is punishing MI for moving their primary by taking all of their delegates away) with only Clinton listed on the ballot there while the GOP has a full slate of contenders (though, Thompson, Guliani and Paul are visibly lacking in the state) listed. Mit Romney is looking to gain some ground here as many have guessed that another second or third place finish in the motor state would leave him questioning whether or not he wants to continue.

Its interesting that by now, the Democratic side is almost paired down to the final three, while the GOP hopefuls are looking past what has happened to states with later primaries to gain ground (Thompson is looking to the Carolinas and most of the south, while guliani is looking to Florida and some of the other red states). It definately proves how split the republican party is going in to this election and I think if Ron Paul were smart, he’d drop out of the GOP race and focus on gaining a third party nomination. Of course whether or not he could do anything with that nomination would be a stretch.

The only thing I know for sure is that the American people have not found one consistant leader from either party to put their faith behind. If the election were today, and you had to vote for one of the six leaders, who could you vote for with out feeling the need to go in to a drug treatment program??

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12:01 am on January 8th, 2007, New Hampshire was the first state to hold an official Primary in the presidential season. Sure, Iowa had their caucuses last week, but come on, standing in a corner is hardly the way to pick the future president of the country is it? New Hampshire is generally the first official primary in the country (its been that way by tradition since 1920 and by state law since the 70’s, though I don’t see how a state can decide its going to be first. Thats like the last place qualifier at a nascar event deciding to take the choice poll position).

Its not that important of a primary as far as delegates go (come on, this ISNew Hampshire we’re talking about) but the important part of the NH primary is the media exposure that a candidate gets from the event. Most sub-third place finishers will most likely begin their exit after today’s primary while the two or three main players in either party may fight for more of their life. If Obama can finish strong here beating out Clinton (or even if Hillary looses to John Edwards), the Clinton camp will either have to ramp up their fight for super tuesday or take a good look at their strategy and decide to go home. Its seldom that a candidate looses the party’s nomination after taking both Iowa and New Hampshire (and another loss here would take a lot of wind out of HRC’s sails).

On the Right side of the aisle, if McCain can stage a coup and come out ahead of Romney, then the Mittster will have to step his game up a tad as well as he would have suffered two early losses in Key states. Same for Rudy. Fred isn’t expecting to do well until he hits the southern half of the country, but more than anything, I think I’d like to see him drop out and endorse Huckabee who could do well with anything above a third place finish in the Granite state.

All in all its going to be an exciting day. By the way, if you’re in Georgia and you did not register to vote before Yesterday, you’re out of luck for the Primary coming up in February.

So the caucuses were good for some and not so good for others. On the side of the donkey we have two senators (dodd and biden) dropping out of the race as Obama edges past Edwards and Clinton for the Iowa delegates. Whats surprising is that Edwards beat out Hillary Clinton for second. The talking heads are calling this a “debate between change and experience” this go round. Personally, I think people are beginning to see Hillary Clinton for what she is, and I hope it continues to New Hampshire.

The GOP pushed Huckabee to the front of the pack and gave him the nod and its my hope that he’s able to parlay this early win in to a string of them. I think an Obama vs. Huckabee general election in November could prove interesting and beneficial for the country. They both offer different views from previous holders of the office and most importantly, they both seem to know whats on the minds of the average person. Of which, there are a lot. It makes me wish I had real estate in NH and some of the early primary states so I could vote now, but I guess I’ll wait my turn. Georgia votes in February.

Caucus Outcome (top 3 in each party)

Democrat

1. Obama - 38%
2. Edwards - 30%
3. Clinton - 29%

GOP

1. Huckabee - 34%
2. Romney - 25%
3. Thompson - 13%
4. McCain - 13%

They don’t send out kids party invitations to people in either party reminding them about the Caucuses on January 3rd, people just know about them. If you’ve turned on a radio, tv or picked up a paper today then chances are fairly good you know about them as well. The opening of the political voting season is brought in with friends and neighbors meeting in schools, churches, halls and other meeting areas for a chance to literally stand up and be counted.

According to CNN the democratic caucuses actually require a person “voting” for one of the candidates to stand in the appropriate corner of the room for the candidate, while the GOP Caucuses take a secret ballot. I prefer the secret ballot as opposed to standing in my guy’s corner, after all, one of the two things you don’t discus with friends is politics.

It will be interesting to see who from the Democrat side walks away triumphant (Obama, Edwards and Clinton are in a tight three way race) and I’m even more excited to see which GOP frontrunner takes it and whether or not Thompson can garner enough votes to stay alive in the race.