With enough candidates to field a baseball squad, those vying for the democratic presidential nomination may leave one asking \Who's on first?""
Wisconsin is seen by experts as a key state in the bid for the Democratic nomination.
""The Wisconsin primary will play a major role. Wisconsin is the first state that is a microcosm of the country,"" said Dennis Dresang, professor of political science at UW-Madison.
In preparation for voting in the Wisconsin primary, which is just around the corner Feb. 17, the better question may be ""Who's on the team?""
With nine candidates all supporting a woman's right to choose, affirmative action and equality for all citizens, and nine candidates firmly against just about anything President Bush has done in office, what is it that makes U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., any different than Carol Moseley Braun?
""We need to get people's attention,"" said Don Eggert, co-chair of Students for John Kerry. ""The crowded field makes it difficult to get the message out. Part of the problem is that you have nine candidates.""
A problem indeed. When debating each other there is little time for any one candidate to really get a message across, much less delve into issue topics with one-or-two minute snippets of time.
With the Wisconsin primaries coming up quickly, it is important for voters to be informed about the candidates. Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont debuted an infomercial in Madison Sunday night to get the message about his campaign out to the public.
Endorsements are yet another way candidates are attempting to gain the support from the 12 percent of Democratic voters who are undecided. Endorsements come from individuals or groups including Hollywood stars like Danny Glover, hip-hop groups and even a new microcosm of the voting public replacing ""soccer moms,"" the NASCAR dads. Bush has tried to capture these votes with White House visits from 2003 Winston Cup Winner and Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth.
""We want to attract these people [NASCAR dads] but for the right reasons,"" said Amy Shultz, co-coordinator of Students for Clark.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is trying to capture some of the 18-24-year demographic Dean has targeted with his visits to liberal college campuses like UW-Madison by appealing to hip-hop aficionados.
""Kucinich is endorsed by a group called Hip-Hop Artists for Kucinich,"" Dan Casanova from Students for Kucinich said.
Dean has received many significant endorsements ranging from labor unions to civil rights activist Jesse Jackson Jr. Tuesday, the biggest endorsement any candidate has received was given to Dean by former Vice President Al Gore. In endorsing Dean, Gore passed over his 2000 running mate, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
With strong endorsements piling up for Dean and polling numbers showing his popularity still strong with Democrats, it looks as if the governor of Vermont is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. But for the Democrats, regardless of which nominee becomes Most Valuable Player for the team and wins the primary, sights are already set on evicting Bush from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
With Gallup Polls for Dec. 5-7 indicating a slim approval rating for the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq with a 50 percent to 47 percent approval to disapproval rating, this is a topic Democrats will hit hard.
""The War in Iraq is the No. 1 thing,"" Casanova said when comparing Kucinich to Bush. ""He is the only candidate with a plan for ending the war in Iraq. The others are just talking about it.""
And talking about it a lot. The war in Iraq is the key talking point for Democrats when discussing the president.
""The number one issue in the presidential race will be the war in Iraq,"" Dresang said.
Although war is a popular topic of the Democrats, there are domestic issues to tackle in the race for the Democratic nomination and ultimately in the presidential race.
Finding out where the candidates stand on these issues may come down to doing personal research. All have policy statement papers on their Web sites and these are where voters can research issues that are important to them when choosing which candidate to cast a vote for.
""We all as individuals need to do some of the work,"" Eggert said. ""We can't wait for someone to put information in front of us. If anyone is not willing to do that, they haven't upheld their part of
the deal.\
