I’ve commented before that the 2008 presidential election was at serious risk of being a matter of getting to choose between a small handful of candidates chosen for us by the news media. California bumping our primary date to February 5th, the first day of the official primary season, was supposed to give us some say in who the nominees of the major parties were going to be, but it looks like we’ve been cheated again. A list of the fallen:

• Joe Biden
• Sam Brownback
• Chris Dodd
• Jim Gilmore
• Duncan Hunter
• Dennis Kucinich
• Bill Richardson
• Tom Tancredo
• Tommy Thompson
• Fred Thompson

Each of these candidates had their problems, but chief among them was lack of face-time at the national level. Without Anna Nicole Smith or Natalee Holloway drama to clamp onto, most news outlets simply latched onto every little thing that Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama said and did, with so-called pundits bickering for hours about their subset of darling candidates (Clinton, Obama, McCain, Romney) for every minute of coverage any other candidate received.

Now it looks like Giuliani and Edwards are dropping out. Being registered “undeclared,” the Republicans wouldn’t let me vote for Rudy, but I had four choices left on the Democratic side of things until today: Clinton, Edwards, Gravel, and Obama. Maybe I didn’t want Clinton or Obama to walk into the convention this year with a majority of delegates. Maybe I wanted a real convention for once. Maybe I wanted Edwards to hang in there and play king-maker. Yeah, a big part of me really did. The conventions for both parties have been a joke since 1980. No question as to the nominee. No question as to the platform. No question as to the running-mate. Just a balloon-drop and a bunch of cheerleader speeches.

So the Democrats have let me down. Hopefully Huckabee, McCain, and Romney can split up enough of the February 5th delegates to keep things interesting on that side of things.

note: the Edwards campaign site still has its “contribute” link accessible, so maybe I’m jumping the gun here.

*Update: yep, he’s out.

I’ve heard people complain that there have been too many presidential debates already. True, we’ve had a lot, and there are still a lot more credible contenders than we’re used to, but I think they’ve still got a lot to say, and we’ve got a lot left to hear about how the various candidates propose to handle the responsibilities of leadership.

That, and I follow politics like most guys follow sports. Keep ’em coming. I just hope we can get more than one or two cross-party debates once the nominees are settled in.

It’s game day today, with the Nevada caucuses for the Democrats and Republicans, and a primary in South Carolina for the Republicans. Frankly, the Republican side of things is where the real fun is. Sorry, Clinton and Obama, but the same old tired bickering over perceived slights to civil rights leaders just doesn’t do it for me. Nothing to get the the blood racing. Over on the other side of the aisle, however, things are nice and dicey. They’ve got a race in the first Republican stronghold state, and four candidates have a legitimate stake. Four! And the fur is flying. Is McCain the Manchurian Candidate, brainwashed by his communist Vietnamese buddies? Is Huckabee a tax & spend liberal with Christian Taliban trappings? Can Romney get a bunch of southerners to vote for a polygamist cultist? Is Fred Thompson actually a credible candidate anywhere? Hoo boy!

Throw in the fact that early Nevada results are currently showing Ron Paul coming in second, ahead of an awful lot of presumably-more-credible contenders… I may have to switch out of my “undeclared” registration just so I can get in on this come February.