The TelePromTer-readers and out-of-touch-hate-mongers of the mainstream media thought that they were being super-cool by discussing/bitching about the presidential candidate debates that were posted on YouTube. So since that new, interesting, and youth-vote promoting aspect of the next election has been talked to death by the talking-heads, I have found these candidate related webpages to occupy me during my early in the ante meridian down-time:

At SuperBook.com, you can go to their "Exotic Lines" section to place a bet on who will win the Democrat and Republican presidential nominations for 2008, as well as who will win the 2008 presidential election. So far, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Al Gore are favorites for the Democratic nomination betting lines. On the Republican nomination lines, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are favored. Currently, Hillary Clinton is the favorite at 2-1 on the betting lines for the 2008 presidential election. Rudy Giuliani comes in second with odds at 3-1, and Barack Obama comes in third at 7-2. Somehow, despite legal impossibilities, George W. Bush (at 200-1) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (at 250-1) have managed to make it into the Super Book lines. And while winning is unlikely, you can even place a bet that Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Donald Trump, Clint Eastwood, Bill O'Reilly, Donald Rumsfeld, Laura Bush, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson will be the next United States President. Unfortunately, the Super Book website does not say what they do in the event of Floridian or Ohio-style result-skewing Election Day crimes.

Obviously, many of the people on the betting lines are not actually running for presidential office or party nominations. So if you want the real list of who the current candidates are, you can check out the equally entertaining, and more importantly, informative list of presidential candidates at Vote-Smart.org. According to Vote-Smart's Presidential Candidate list, there currently 220-something people who have announced that they are running for presidential office. I had no idea there were that many candidates! The site also has a really good Presidential Elections Resource page with information about primary dates and Electoral College votes. By the way, for California State, the Democratic and Republican primaries are on February 5th, 2008.

My Melody in a money suit photo by pengrin via Flickr.