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When one thinks of the classic presidential race, the Republican and Democratic candidate arguing back and forth usually comes to mind, but the 2008 elections have taken a different direction, a race to be first.
All the focus seems to be on two prominent democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, in hopes to have the first woman or the first African-American president.
What few have realized, however, is that only one Democratic candidate can be chosen to go on.
“The media limits the information presented to the public so people will be forced to vote for Clinton or Obama either way,” said student Lamar Mills, majoring in child development. “That is all we see.”
Chasing Clinton and Obama there are other candidates including former Sen. John Edwards, Senators Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Gov. Bill Richardson and former Sen. Mike Gravel.
“I have heard their names before but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have an advantage, their qualities and the press,” said Janie Huang, art major.
Though Clinton may have the advantage of seniority and experience in a leadership position to aid in her campaign, Obama is connecting with the younger generation.
“He is more in touch with the modern day community. He knows his demographics,” said Huang.
Beverly Tate, dean of physical education, who met Obama last summer at a reading, said, “He represents a new generation that is multiethnic.”
The last attempts made by African American candidates for president were by Rev. Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun, a former senator and U.S. ambassador, in the 2004 presidential elections.
Both Sharpton and Braun dropped out early and supported other candidates.
Though African-American women had a candidate that they could relate to in Braun, some may have felt and will feel, a pull when they come to vote for the Democratic candidates.
Although the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, barred color, ethnicity and past circumstances, such as slavery, to be factors in voting, African-Americans rarely saw the inside of a voting booth. People had to go through rigorous literacy tests in order to be approved for voting, but this was eliminated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed under President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1970, the 18th Amendment allowed women the right to vote, outlawing the use of gender as a way to prevent voting.
Though the right of suffrage was granted to African-Americans before women, this will not necessarily hint who will be the Democratic presidential candidate for 2008. Many think that society’s standing will shape how America will choose between Clinton and Obama.
“I am both a woman and African American. It is hard,” said Tate. “I cannot separate the two. Society will not allow me to. Society constructs who African Americans are and who women are,” Tate said.
“We have a female candidate and fought a long time for women’s rights, but now we also have an African-American candidate to choose from,” she added.
So now the guessing game will continue over who will have the opportunity to break a minority barrier. “It is coming down to the wire; popularity [will be the reason] in the end,” said Mills.
Clinton leads Obama 46 percent to 17 percent as of Oct. 14, according to pollingreport.com.

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