Who is Running for President?

While researching online as to what candidates have been up to this week I came across on the Washington Post a webpage that lists all of the candidates for the 2008 election. For the first time I found a list of all of the potential candidates for President. I had an idea of some of the candidates, but I did not know that there were so many republican candidates running.

The webpage called, “The Presidential Field” shows the democratic and republican candidates in two columns. Each of which show a picture of them that links to somewhat of a biography page that discusses their education, experience, books written, and recent articles that the Washington Post has covered on them. It’s refreshing to find a website or a type of media that provides information as to who all of the candidates are at the time being and what their backgrounds are.

If I was not did not have to write this blog for class who knows if I would have came upon this site. For all I know I could have continued thinking that there were a select few who were running for President in both parties. Of course I realized there had to be other candidates running, I just wasn’t aware of how many. The reason as to why I believe this is a possibility is due to the television coverage of certain candidates. I’ve noticed while watching news coverage of the candidates that only certain ones are receiving publicity such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, and at times Al Gore, and John Edwards. But, the others I’ve yet to see a strong campaign strategy on television.

However, my own selection of what I’m looking at could have an impact as to why I’ve yet to see more republican and democrat candidates. Some may believe that polarization may play a role in this. I tend to watch CNN over Fox News, which may be why I have not seen more of the republican candidates. But, CNN has not covered all of the democrats either. On the internet when I am searching for news or updates I try not to lean one way or the other in political parties. Instead I use searches usually directed towards my blogging topic, which covers all political parties. There may be a slight biased in candidates I’ve analyzed, but perhaps the reason is because those candidates are in the media more often than others.

I think that having a site such as the Washington Post does is a define benefit for the candidates running for President. It allows the public to get to know them more personally and informs those who may not know much about the candidate’s history. Also the connection between television the internet and politics at times can help or hurt a candidate’s campaign. Those who are not receiving as much publicity as those who are from television networks may be lagging in polls. This just shows that the internet cannot be the only type of media that candidates use in campaigning, television is needed as well.