As the months creep closer to November 2008, the presidential election grows more intense. Each candidate stands taller on their platform, and while some may pull out, others push ahead, picking up support along the way. However, which candidates are worth voting for? Who stands for what, and why? To decide which candidates deserve a vote, one must take a closer look at the candidates themselves and the history that makes them who they are today.



Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are the two front-runners in the Republican Party. But how much do you really know about them? When asked if she even knew who Rudy Giuliani was, tenth grader Heather Hollingsworth replied with a blunt “no.” However, Giuliani, just like the rest of the presidential candidates, has done a number of things to positively affect the nation before running for president.



Rudy Giuliani was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Manhattan College and then went on to graduate from New York University Law School. In 1993, Giuliani became Mayor of New York. He was re-elected once more in 1997. During his term, Giuliani cut overall crime in the city by 56%, reduced welfare by 58%, and cut taxes 23 times in New York. If he becomes president, Giuliani also plans on cutting taxes and working for better public safety, as well as winning the war on terror and placing restrictions on abortion.



On the other hand, Mitt Romney started out as a governor for Massachusetts. Before that, Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School. Ranking within the top 25% of his class, Romney received the Baker Scholar, also given to the top 5% of the graduating MBA class. During his years as governor, Romney balanced the budget within his administration without raising taxes and added 60,000 jobs to lower Massachusetts's unemployment rate. On top of that, Romney established the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship program that gives free tuition for four years to students attending public universities through out Massachusetts. If chosen for the presidency, Romney plans on keeping taxes low, solving the problems with immigration, and extending health insurance throughout the nation.



The same goes for candidates in the Democratic Party, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.



Hillary Clinton graduated from both Wellesley College and Yale Law School. By the time she turned thirty, she was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Legal Service Corporation that helped provide funding for the poor. In the time during and following her husband's presidency, Clinton worked unrelentingly to improve health care and to create better conditions for children, including those in foster case. By 1997, she put together the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which helped get foster children out of foster care and adopted at a faster pace. If Clinton becomes president, she plans on working more on these issues. Also, she says she will work on ending the war in Iraq, providing funding for research to prevent an increase in Global Warming, and repairing the election system.



Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. He graduated from Columbia University and then went on to receive a law degree from Harvard University in 1991. In time, Obama became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He also served as a senator for Illinois for eight years. Obama would eventually come to create a plan for Income Tax Credit while providing one hundred million dollars in tax cuts. If Obama becomes president, he plans on fighting poverty, immediately taking the troops out of Iraq, updating the technology for border protection, and improving the speed and accuracy of background checks for immigrants wishing to enter the U.S. legally.



And yet, even with all of this said, each candidate is working for so much more than the issues mentioned in this article. It is important for voters, young and old, to research each candidate in detail, and decide for themselves who deserves their vote. To research a presidential candidate, anyone can simply go to Google.com and type in a candidate’s name. In fact, finding information on a candidate is much easier than coming to a decision on who a person should vote for. So why not start with the easy stuff first?

Information from HillaryClinton.com, JoinRudy.com, BarackObama.com, and MittRomney.com