With Obama seeking re-election, the candidates for the Democratic Party have been narrowed down and the Republican Party is still going through the early stages of the process. Researching online (utilizing services such as Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Youtube to gather information on each candidate) has become a lot easier, and in essence, so is finding a preferential candidate, especially for someone not politically minded who is only now starting from the ground up. Such a person can catch up if they started looking at the candidates today and needed to know quickly where they stand now. The choice will have to made between Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, Perry, Romney, and Santorum, since they are the ones participating in the debates. All information gathered was found by searching “2012 presidential candidates” on Google, looking at their Wikipedia articles, finding their Facebook pages, and viewing pieces of the debates on Youtube.
On Facebook, Romney is the most popular presidential candidate with over a million Likes; the 2nd being Paul with over half a million, Bachmann, 3rd, with just under half a million. The least popular presidential candidate from this list is Jon Huntsman with just over twenty-thousand. On their Facebook pages, one can find the candidates’ educational background, information on their political careers, basic biographical information, and all of their pages have links to their campaign websites. The Walls of their Facebook pages contain various status updates, links to active parts of their political campaigning, involvement in the media and other self promotional things.
Repeats of the recent debates can be found all over the internet, including Youtube, which is a great thing for those who missed it and are intrigued. When it comes to debating, Bachmann is somewhere between Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton: she’s more aggressive than Palin, but lacks the extra edge that Clinton seemed to have. Cain is very well presented in the debates and speaks somewhat like a Reverend and has a lot of personality and spunk. Times have not changed for Newt Gingrich, his debating may be informative but it is poorly executed and long winded. Huntsman presents himself almost like a news anchorman and depending on one’s own opinion, that could be good or bad. Ron Paul excels in debate, he has great presentation and delivery and seems to be very convincing; he seems to come off as the wise old man in the group. Compared to the rest of the group, in the debates, Perry seemed to be the most well rounded person; he didn’t really stick out in either a good or bad way. Romney has a voice perfect for radio and has a great command which could see this being a great asset for campaigning. Santorum seems to come off as seemingly uptight and almost uncomfortable.
Michelle Bachmann: Bachmann may be well presented and have a better chance than Sarah Palin, however, her luck with the media is about the same.
Herman Cain: According to various online surveys, even though the most popular candidate typically varied, Cain had a tendency of being the second most popular. Overall, he may not have the best chance of winning. However, his personality could easily make him the most popular candidate to watch during the debates.
Newt Gingrich: He may have a lot of answers to all the questions, however, time and time again has proven he does not have a chance in winning because he can’t keep anybody’s attention.
Jon Huntsman: Huntsman is the least popular of this list of candidates according to Facebook, and although he may have a lot to offer in terms of ideas and in debating, there does not seem to be much of chance for him to get popular and known in time to make a real impact in the competition. Also considering that he used to work for Obama as the ambassador to China makes it strange that he is in the Republican Party.
Ron Paul: Ron Paul is quite popular, informative, and experienced, however his biggest issues with the upcoming election will be his age, 77 in 2012, and the fact that he’s known for leaning more towards Libertarian ideas, and if he can’t fix that, that will pose a major problem among other Republicans.
Rick Perry: Perry was a late addition, however his climbing popularity along with his presentation give him a decent chance in the race. There is a catch though, he has a tendency to be controversial when pertaining to topics involving Social Security, the death penalty, etc. and this might prove to be detrimental in the long run.
Mitt Romney: The infamous Healthcare Reform plan had a lot of ideas based on a plan by Romney, and the fact that he’s Mormon does not benefit his campaigning, however his current popularity says otherwise. He certainly does have potential to make it far into the process.
Rick Santorum: Out of all the candidates, Santorum is the only one that has an issue with search engines. Warning: Clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky” in a Google search for Santorum may be offensive to some. This alone should speak volumes as to where he stands in the long run of this competition.
