John McCain

Born John Sidney McCain III to John S. McCain Jr. and Roberta McCain on August 29th, 1936, was born in the Panama Canal Zone. During his childhood and adolescent years John McCain’s family moved from one American naval base to the other. Fifteen years later, they settled into northern Virginia where McCain attended Episcopal High School. Like his father and grandfather, McCain entered a naval academy and was then trained to be a naval aviator. He was assigned missions and in 1965 married Carol Shepp. Two years later, he was shot down during a combat assignment in Vietnam and was captured by the North Vietnamese. It would be there the Vietnamese would regularly torture and beat him for 5½ years until he was released in early 1973. After returning, he returned to his wife and eventually in 1980 he got a divorce and later married Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a large beer distributer. He later received awards for his service in Vietnam. After working for his father-in-law, John McCain sought to become a U.S. congressman and was elected as a representative for the state. After a successful time in the house, McCain then ran for senate and was elected a senator from Arizona in 1984. However, in 1987 McCain, along with four other senators were accused of receiving contributions from Charles Keating Jr. to help his company. Three of them were convicted but John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of all charges but displayed “poor judgment”. Afterwards, good things were to follow even though McCain was to lead a fruitless 2000 presidential campaign. After being elected to his third term to the senate, McCain then had his bill passed which made sure that campaigns were to increase the use of soft money and also the candidates were to say they approved the message. In 2008, John McCain became the Republican Presidential Nominee.

John S. McCain III has voted with his party a good majority of the time but has been known to not follow traditional Republican stances. Like the Republican Party, he has voted for offshore drilling, keep or even lower the Bush tax cuts, letting our troops stay in Iraq, the states should decide the minimum wage, private social security, reduce pork-barrel spending, and is pro-life. However, he supports stem-cell research and feels there needs to be higher taxes on cigarettes. Also like Barack Obama, he supports environmental protection and for us to be more dependent on our own energy. He is considered a good conservative with some liberal touched here and there.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho as the daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Heath. Early in her life, the family moved to Alaska where she would become a high school point guard, run long races and loved to hunt moose. After graduating from Wasilla High School, she attended Hawaii Pacific College and afterwards eventually ended up at the University of Idaho. She then won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest and finished third in the state. She then returned from an Alaskan college back to Idaho where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science. She moved to Alaska and was a sports reporter for KTUU-TV, a NBC affiliate. Palin decided to then run for city council of Wasilla for feeling her attitude would bring great change to the city. She was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1995. Being mayor of Wasilla was the next stop for Palin and helped bring change to the city. She ran for eliminating wasteful spending and decreased her own salary by 10%. She was a popular mayor and was re-elected by a majority of 74%. Many buildings and a Sports Center were built in Wasilla during her second term. She then could not run again because of term limits and was the Ethics supervisor for the Alaskan Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She then ran for the office of Governor of Alaska and won the election and became Alaska’s first woman and the youngest Alaskan to be governor. It would be there she exposed much corruption in the state and “cleaned-up” its policies and head officials. She decreased Alaska’s reliance on federal earmarks and large projects. She also voted against what was called a “bridge to nowhere”. A few months following this she became the first female on the Republican Presidential ticket.

Sarah Palin is considered by many and is a conservative. Like John McCain, Sarah Palin supports many issues the Republicans support such as free trade, pro-life, for capital punishment, against gay marriage, supports illegal drugs staying illegal, and is a fiscal conservative. She is also a member of the National Rifle Association and wants a huge cutback on pork-barrel spending. Like a good-many people, she advocates free-trade and wants Bush’s tax cuts to stay in effect. Even though Palin is new to this game, she has done a good job as governor and as a mayor.

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II was born to Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Durham on August 4th, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama moved to Indonesia at an early age then back to Hawaii in 1971 where he was raised by his maternal grandparents until he graduated from high school. Subsequently, he studied at Occidental College until his sophomore year and transferred to Columbia University where he acquired his B.A. Chicago was next on his list and it was here he became a community organizer and under his leadership, the organization’s budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000. Obama then attended Harvard law school and graduated with good grades and a law degree in 1991. During the summers of his of 1989-1991, Obama was employed by law firms and met his future wife at Sidley & Austin. After Harvard, “Barry” then became a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years. In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate. Later in 2004, Obama was elected as a U.S. senator from Illinois and so far has supported liberal policies. In 2007, he was ranked by the National Journal as the “most liberal” senator. With his wife Michelle Obama has two daughters and became the first African-American presidential candidate of a major political party in 2008.

Barack Obama has voted liberally the majority of his political career and proves in the future he will continue as such. Barack Obama has suggested a raise of $2.10 to the minimum wage and is against the tax breaks of the wealthy that senator McCain has purposed. Also, he is an advocate of teaching “sex-education” to kindergarteners but only them being told that their consent matters. Under his administration, he plans to cut America’s oil consumption by 35% by 2030 and also wants to impose a tariff on imported ethanol. Like his party, he is for stem-cell research, abortions, against NAFTA, against capital punishment, supports a handgun ban, and to recede from Iraq. Most if not all of his decisions will be similar to fellow Democrats.

Joseph Biden

Joseph Robinette Biden was born on November 20th, 1942 to Irish-Catholics Joe Biden Sr. and Jean Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He overcame his stuttering that he suffered through childhood and attended Archmere Academy where he was a natural leader among the students. After high school, Biden became a student of the University of Delaware and considered himself as a lazy student. When Joe received his B.A., Syracuse University College of Law was his next stop where he had great trouble since he was accused of plagiarizing portions of articles for his review but was later cleared for these charges. He married Neilia Hunter in 1966 during his stay at Syracuse and afterwards moved to Wilmington, DE and began practicing law. Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council and served from 1970 to 1972. Becoming a senator from Delaware was his next target and like Barack Obama he ran under the slogan “change”. In an upset, Joe Biden dethroned Incumbent J. Boggs of Delaware and became the fifth youngest senator ever at age 30. Unfortunately, Biden’s wife and daughter died in an automobile accident while his two sons were seriously injured but later recovered. He then considered resigning but was persuaded not to do so. In 1975, he married Jill Tracey Jacobs a local teacher of Wilmington. At Widener University School of Law, he has since 1991 taught a seminar on constitutional law. In 1988 and in 2008 he unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic Presidential Nominee. He has and is very active in his role as senator being a member of both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. In 2008, he was nominated by the Democrats to be their Vice Presidential Candidate.

Like his running-mate Barack Obama, Joe Biden has voted and promises to vote accordingly to his party but not as often as Obama has. Similar to Obama, he opposes offshore drilling, supports labor unions, is against President Bush’s tax cuts, supports a path for illegal immigrants to become citizens, restricting gun laws, is for abortions, and stem-cell research. Unlike Obama, Biden voted for the U.S. to stay a member of NAFTA and is for free trade. One setback is Biden is known for speaking his mind whether or not it is the appropriate time to do so. However, Biden is on the same side as Obama on the major issues such as the environment and taxation.