Go to their websites and read their specific plans... or, rather, hopes. No matter who is president, he or she can only try to influence the people. Congress makes the rules insofar as they aren't thwarted by a veto that cannot be overridden. That's the problem with the present congress. The Democratic majority is not big enough to override a Bush veto of laws to bring the troops home or require a new tax on the oil companies to make up for the revenue loss from the gas tax "holiday" pander.

Get your mind off the Presidential "circus" and focus on the Senate and Congressional races..that is where the problems are solved (or made!). Only they can approve budgets, spend money, make war, make laws and generally control the courts and the President. Our Congress got us into this mess..Democrat or Republican..Only Congress can get us out of it.

Can we just all start over? We've seen what the "top 3" can offer. We need a mulligan!

No clear presidential favorite?

This is true only if you don't care whether we stay in Iraq.

And this year is different... how?
Every year we choose the "lesser of two evils".

to Disappointed: Just write in whoever you do like, or put your own name down, then declare loudly that nothing that goes wrong is your fault since you didn't vote for "any of them." Of course, this might get old after four years.

You are being incredibly naive, either deliberately or accidentally.
Congress rarely passes a bill of any substance that has a veto proof majority. As such, both the House and Senate are forced to negotiate with the white house on bills to pass something that will signed into law.

A perfect example of this is: EVERY year the president presents HIS budget proposal to congress for their consideration. The last time congress tried to deviate significantly from the President's budget, the government SHUTDOWN.

The President is truly the most powerful man in the world. To try to pass all the blame for our current problems off on Congress is truly naive.

Obama is the only hope we have to get this once great Nation turned around.
We need morals back in power and Obama is the perfecct one to bring them back.

Too all of you who voted for Bush; you elected the next democratically controlled government. thanks!

For a Republican to win this election, we would need iron-clad proof that Obama eats babies.

ernest T: are uou being serious? Morals? puh-leez. Tony Rezko mean anything to you. He may be Teflon like Slick Willy but let's not get carried away here with the "morals" business- I was born at night but not last night

Burak Husain is our only hope. We must all get behind him. All is lost to consider any other change. He is the only one with pep. We need more pep. More tennis clubs. More sweaters around our shoulders. More hand outs. More talk. More american idol. More anything that doesn't really solve problems. Go Barok!

Yes, there is a presidental favorite and the information is readily available to anyone who has been witness to the last 7 1/2 years. That candidate is ABAR (Anyone but a Republican). This is particularly significant when people see John McCain trying desparately to distance himself from George W. Bush.

Republican candidates for Congress have see the writing on the wall in Louisiana and Mississippi in recent special elections. Even "safe" Republican havens have gone for Democratic candidates, and the Fall election has vulnerable Republicans running scared that they will soon be out of a job.

The only issue is when Hillary Clinton will concede and allow Barack Obama to move forward and engage in meaningful dialog. As Obama becomes more specific in the policies he proposes to heal the divisive wounds that have made American disrespected throughout the world will the horrors of the Bush Administration begin to fade into the dustbin of history.

It is important to have both liberal and conservative voices in guiding our country through these perilous times. However, the Bush Administration did a thorough job in destroying the conservative philosophy of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. People are angry and have made their choice!

Doug Slater, you are not incredibly naive, you have hit the the nail upon the head.

Kennedy, Byrd, Hatch, Kerry, etc are all the ones who have led this country into the gutter. The president comes and goes every four or eight years. These clowns have been at it for forty years. Only an idiot would look at that disparity and declare that the president is to blame for all the problems we have.

Congress writes the checks, Congress makes the laws. Congress is equal in power to the President, as declared in the Constitution.

The democratic congress ran this country into the ground for forty years thanks to most of the above mentioned people. Its time to realize that the cliche about Congress being like diapers, be taken seriously, as they both need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason.

Your crazy and blind if you don't see barack obama for who he really is not. I would never vote for him because he too phony.

Buck Wild: I meant exactly what I said. The majority of the problems of the last 10 years are directly from the repugs.
How is it moral to enrich the wealthy while adding 5 million additional families to the poverty level?
How is it moral to cause bankruptcies and foreclosures because the middle class cannot afford health care or health insurance premiums?
How is it moral to be responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis?
How is torture EVER moral?
There are many, MANY more to add to the list of republican indescretion.
And lastly, every bigot I've ever met is a republican.

"Burak Husain is our only hope. We must all get behind him. All is lost to consider any other change. He is the only one with pep. We need more pep. More tennis clubs. More sweaters around our shoulders. More hand outs. More talk. More american idol. More anything that doesn't really solve problems. Go Barok!"

Really? I have to wonder what's going on in the censors' heads when my well-thought comments somehow routinely get scrubbed and then they go ahead and post this garbage.

This is the best of all worlds! Maybe we can finally get beyond the thought that the only decision is what party and move to which person can bring us together. Then we can get some problem solving going instead of constantly trying to make the other party look bad! Hurray!

A Ernest T: those nasty Republicans- causing bankruptcies and torturing terrorists captured on battlefields! How many innocent Iraqis? I actually blame Iran for that but the number isn't nearly that high.
Republicans are bigots? Very odd .... the Democrats are the ones who have been telling minorities the last fifty years that they can't make their way in the world without Government assistance. Now that's true bigotry.

King George entered office with a budget SURPLUS. He insisted on huge tax cuts for the wealthy that even his Treasury Secretary told him the country could not afford. Rather than listen to Paul O'Neill's counsel, king George asked for his resignation and proceeded to push for his irresponsible tax cuts. The rest is history. The largest deficits in history, for year on year, FY 2008 will be the biggest ever by a huge margin.

Also, he has lied into a never ending war that we were told would be over quickly and would pay for itself. Why do people keep swallowing this bull?

to John: GOP controlled Congress for the end of Clinton (big surplus), and most of the same folks for early Bush II years, when record deficits RESUME post-Clinton. So blaming selected Democrats from Congress just doesn't make sense, especially when they weren't the ones who scared us into war.

@ Mark B: why do Democrats always get so worked up about deficits? Afraid you're going to lose funding for all the entitlement spending that the taxpayers have been burdened with thanks to the Democrat Party? Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security?
Budget surpluses simply indicate that the citizenry is being overtaxed. I'll be the first to tell you that Government spending is out of control and GW Bush just exacerbated the problem. Look at the biggest supporters of the new farm bill,however, (Democrats)and then tell me that Dems don't spend money with the best of 'em.
And no one had to "scare me" into war. 9/11 did the trick.