I am particularly excited about the upcoming presidential elections. Tracking the results from the Iowa caucuses to the New Hampshire primaries has almost been better than keeping up with college football with the hype and controversy that the candidates bring to the race.

I, being a Democrat, am speaking mostly about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and the fact that I will hopefully be voting for one of the two on Nov. 4.

Speaking of voting, several members of the senior class will be able to cast their ballots this year. This ability to participate in the 2008 election seems to have sparked much more fervor among my peers than in past elections.

If you walk into the lounge, you can’t help but hear quibbling about Obama vs. Hillary, or talk of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee and how he has gained support practically overnight. Yesterday, in the World Since 1945 class during seventh period, the lecture on the '60s came to a halt when current political musings about the election were brought up.

Maybe the drudgery of the political scene over the last four years has added to the election hype, but the fact that I, among others, will finally have at least some contribution to the election process instills in me a sense of authority to have a serious opinion about whom I want to run my country.

The more I think about the election and about how a candidate's policies can affect our social systems and economy, the more I feel that everyone who can vote should. If people voted as much as they complained, maybe there would be some changes for the better.