Hillary or Obama?

When I went home for winter break, the first most frequent question was asking how law school was going. The second most frequent question that I received was Hillary or Obama?

It feels like only yesterday when I was at a Bruin Democrats meeting discussing the 2004 Democratic nominees for President. Fast forward a few years and you see some new and exciting faces (Clinton as of today & Obama), some familiar faces from '04 for better or worse (better: Edwards, worse: Kucinich & maybe Kerry), and some candidates who are trying to pull a "Bill Clinton- come out of nowhere and then win in 1992" (Biden, Vilsack, Dodd, Richardson, Gravel- yeah I don't even know who this last guy is).

So back to the question at hand: Hillary or Obama? In my own politician-way, I've dodged the question. I have preferences but honestly I haven't read enough about anyone to make a committment. Even if California moves up their primary, I still have over a year to figure things out.

I must say though, even though the primaries are over a year away, they're already very entertaining to follow. I like most of the choices now on both sides much more than in 2004. The Democrats side is interesting to watch because you have two political "rockstars" who are both breaking barriers. It will be interesting to see how the party of "diversity" factors this in and decides. And the Republicans side is interesting to watch because you have people representing all the little factions of the "big tent" Republican party (the LA times has an interesting story about core conservatives finding a candidate). These primaries are a political scientist's dream case study. It will be very interesting to see how everything pans out.