CNN

I watched your Ballot Bowl on New Year's Day as well as today and really enjoyed it. It gave me some insight into the candidates that I hadn't seen anywhere else. Thanks.

Well, I have blasted CNN so many times that it is only fair that I congratulate them on Balot Bowl. I got in late and only saw McCain and Clinton, but it was very revealing to me to see the two of them seated in a diner with normal americans around them... and chatting. McCain seemed more at ease and ther more sincere of the two to me. that is distressing because I have no intention of voting Republican. I started out trying to decide between Obama and clinton, but the more I am seeing, the more I am leaning toward Edwards.

Should Be Called the BS-Bowl!!!

After 2 Hrs and Not Showing Ron Paul who is 3rd in NH polls ,you come out with your Fake Bias poll.

You are keeping up with your name Corrupt News Network.....

Your Ad People will love to hear from former viewers!!!!

I know all out there are amazed with the obama pehnon. AS OF LATE.

Please, Obama tell us what you really plan to do, as I have not heard it
yet and that really scares me, as a moderate Democrat, who is sick of
the social meaness of the Bush years, I'm ready to listen to your solutions,
until then, In the Democrats at least I know one thing Hillary is organized
and so dam% smart, and has folks around her, who can help the enonomy
and god help us the forign policy, in this scary world. You say change
you'll bring, then why now are you evoking the MLK speches, from time
ago, and not a speech completely from your head, those speeches
have not changed and I'm not sure the bigots, racists, and old folks
stuck in their ways will be behind your changes, I dont want my vote wasted
this time, I want the worst presidency In my life time to be put in a box
and sent to the dump!!!!!!! Please tell us you plan and us young vote
outside Iowa will embrace you, but until then I'm confused about you!

We need change alright, Having a woman as president IS EVEN BIGGER
REFRESHING CHANGE THAN ANOTHER MAN!

And I'm scared if I vote for you ( an admirable person the Repubs will
eat you alive in the fall, AND remember Karl Rove and co. are still alive and
ahve plenry of venom left to make your life living hel@!
I can't take another 4 repub years!

I don't know about the rest of you but I am sick and tired of a TWO YEAR campaign for President. Maybe we should initiate a starting date and anyone who cheats(HA HA) is automatically out of the race.

The Evangelicals' anti-Mormon/Romney bigotry may well just had the Nov election to the Hildabeast!

I'm a staunch conservative and I think Fox News is a joke. There lame attempts to put Dem "commentators/analysts" on merely highlight how biased and pandering they are. They merely try to tap into the Repub talk radio audience instead of presenting news. 99% of what's on air is just comment/conjecture on other talkers' comments/conjecture and not news.

I agree with Hillary Clinton that Obama is inexperienced and there is a concern there.

My obversations of Obama: I had started supporting Obama in 2004! in Texas, and did alot to talk him up here and at the University of Texas. I had photographed him 3 times in close quarters, and talked to him directly for a few minutes at one. I had made contributions to him the first 2 quarters of 2007. I was not the only one who put in ALOT of work to help him. Has his campaign found ways to get us involved or showed appreciation for our efforts? NO! His support in Austin has eroded in large areas, and his last rally here was MUCH smaller than the large Feb. 07 rally, that drew 20,000 people. His only contact with those of us, like myself who wanted to support him – has been "give me money" email and "hey come out to my rally!" email.

When I tried to give my concerns to the Obama people repeatedly!! by email and by phone, it was largely disregarded. When my concerns to a phone solicitor hit home at the time, and she gave me the national phone number, that national person's attitude was "hey there are too many people for us to follow up with" and we are focusing on the first 3 states. There was a strong arrogance with the person, as if Obama knows all and doesn't need any input on things from anyone. Is this giving a voice to those who are not lobbyists? Granted, the top person can't hear from everyone (despite Obama's rhetoric), but most campaigns understand that you need levels of leadership in a campaign to fully engage people nationally. This same mechanism is also required as President – since you need more than a podium and TV to truly engage people. While Obama gives lip service to this notion, his action and follow through are horribly lacking afterwards. Obama's is so restricted at the national level, they don't even engage voluntary groups like "Texans for Obama" – despite their efforts to help him.

There is a local young candidate here for city council who was like that, great initial candidate with charm and apparent charisma – but after winning he was largely dismissive of those that supported him. That city councilman has turned out to be one of the worst office holders in Austin. He tried to be friend to everyone, and he has come out to be friend to no one. Why? Inexperience! While Obama wants to have everyone have a voice equal to lobbyists and insiders, he is achieving this by excluding most everyone from input. While he has courted Iowa, NH, and SC closely, do not be mistaken – after you vote you won't hear or have any way to contact or be involved in his campaign, in my opinion – other than repeated "give me money" emails.

Having met all the top D candidates and also McCain on the R side, the two candidates that I think are the most personable when they are not wanting something from you are – Hillary and McCain. I was within the Secret Service bubble with Hillary for 3 hours and she was incredibly gracious and willing to listen to anyone. Obama was a rock star (in a negative way) in a similar position, and pretty much gives a smile, great giving speeches, but far LESS effective one-on-one than Hillary.

McCain also was willing to talk to people honestly, and I think also is someone that has incredible experience – and is not a gamble. I saw McCain get hit with a tough, emotional question from an audience member about health care, and he intently listened, and then gave his answer starting with, "you probably won't like my answer, but here it is ..." While I don't agree with McCain on all issues, he is genuine and capable. For those independents who do not like Hillary, I might suggest strongly giving a second look to McCain.

As an independent moderate, I hope my insight from Texas can help you all in NH better judge these candidates from a different perspective – the back side of their campaigns (the side you all don't see!).

Take care.

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS. I THINK CNN TRIES
TO BE FAIR IN THEIR PRESENTATION OF THE CAN-
DIDATES. CAN I MAKE A SUGGESTION, PLEASE?....
WOULD YOU PLEASE ASK RON PAUL TO EXPLAIN
THE SOCIAL SECURITY PRESERVATION ACT (H.R. 219)
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ELECTION CVG. I'M A POLITICS
JUNKIE AND I NEED MY DAILY FIX.

The last time I watced the "bowl" it was disappointing. It was a Hillary back to back LIVE coverage and a 1month old footage from South Carolina for Obama. CNN continues to be blatantly pro Hillary and shmelessly introduces its panel as "the best political team in television".

I want to hear how they are going to put America back together . This great country is so broken up into little countries ., all, with there own special needs. wrong. We are one people AMERICANS . We speak one language ENGLISH . This unites us .not divide us. I do not want to here (well in there country this is normal ) wrong This is my country and you better know the rules and language .

I want to know how our next president is going to bring back all the middle class manufacturing jobs that have gone over seas . Jobs that have been our backbone. Also the middle & upper class tech services that have gone to India .When was the last time you called for help with your computer or health benifits . Who did you talk to ? Could you understand a word that they were saying .because of heavy accent . Non of our personal information should be going to a foreign country . This is crazy.

I want to know who is going to fix health care . We the people have who worked hard all our life ,and retired under sixty five now find ourselfs without health care . No one added that to our expenses when we retired . Now it could cost a couple well over $1000 a month . But ,our elected officals get FREE medical for life. And we pay for it .WHY . If it doesn't affect them they will not change it . The same goes for social security . NOBODY should have been permited to touch that fund ,for there own pork barrel projects . TABOO
We need a president that will stand up for the AMERICAN people .
ONE NATION ONE PEOPLE AMERICANS
GOD BLESS AMERICA

I surely wonder whether you'll give John Edwards equal time for once! Or can CNN too be bought by glamour and big capital to kill off the populist?

I believe there are many more Republican Christians who do not
describe themselves as "born again" type Evangelicals and/or attend
"mainline" Protestant or urban, ex-urban Catholic Churches who would
more likely vote for Hillary than Obama. Also, Hillary will not lose all
Black female voters support sufficient to cause her to lose the
Democratic prImaries.

Obama needs to come up with more specifics besides bringing troops
home from Iraq and how he will actually manage to bring mid-east
"leaders", pass totally "universal insurance", address education
problems in the U.S., work with corporations, deal with immigration
problems He better do such fast because a lot of us independents
and perhaps less informed Democrats would need to hear such
before voting for him in the immediately upcoming primaries

I bet they ignore Ron Paul like they did when they showed a big empty grey area on their pie chart instead of putting his numbers up. After all, he got "slaughtered" as CNN said, with 10% of the vote in Iowa, despite the fact that that is nearly twice as much as the media had predicted and only a few percentage points behind serious contenders like McCain and Thompson and way ahead of Giuliani. Way to go...act like Fox News...your bias is so evident. I hope he wins a strong third in NH just to make CNN, Fox News and everyone else eat their hats.

War For Peace

The price of peace grows ever higher
for kidnaps, bombs and mortar fire,
while torture, rape and execution
bring headlines and retribution.

First blood was paid.
Now we debate.

Still we cannot capitulate.
Seal our fates and these petty hates
by the lives that give their dreams to lies.

Support the troops and not the war.
If that is what a home is for.
Though now we find that, more and more
we scratch our heads and pace the floor,
we know not what we’re fighting for;

This war for peace – this peaceful war.

This day, this week, this war is heading
where no solution is presenting.
Sunnis, Shiites kill each other
families torn brother from brother.

We deploy this year, another.
Send our soldiers father and mother
to Afghanistan, Iran?, Iraq,
with vehicles both wheeled and track,
expecting soon they’re coming back.
When they do – we send again
when Johnny comes marching home again.

Chance Beyer
US Army medic
Baghdad, 2006
Check Point 1 – Haifa Street

Yes I agree with the Snicklefritz comment. Thank you CNN for keeping everyone up to date and informed.

Thanks for listening and running Ballot bowl this weekend. I look forward to it.

Hey Robert from Strasburg, VA, no one cares what the son of a candidiate did ten years ago. That has no bearing on the election or his positions on the issues. Clearly you think Hucabee is a strong candidate and I respect that, but there is no need to defend the man on a non-issue. Don't worry he'll do fine without your help.

thankgoodness, i thought i was going to get stuck with msnbc. Your at least somewhat fair, although jack needs to get a life. Im getting sick of him ragging hillary

I have two comments:

With America's attention span so short, how can we be expected to stay with the election clear until November? We have be hearing about these individuals since before 2007.

I believe the statements that I should be hearing now isn't about what I can do for them to get my vote, what will they do for me? I reference the "change" message that keeps coming to the forefront. What kinds of change and are they right for the greater good of America.

Good idea CNN!! This will give people a lot better insight as to who these politicians are, more so than sound bites ever could. Thanks for keeping the CNN name associated with fact and integrity!

This is awesome you guys do an awesome job and you're right CNN HAS THE EMMY AWARD WINNING BEST POLITICAL TEAM ON TELEVISION AND YOU GUYS BEAT THE REST IN COVERAGE AND GRAPHICS... LOL FOX HAS THE WORST GRAPHICS FOLLOWED BY MSNBC

Robert don't just outline your thoughts try and give a complete account of what your trying to say

Thanks a lot!

obama put $10,000000 in his campaign in iowa how much did oprah give

WOW
I already didn't like the Huskter. What kind of a parent tries to cover up that type of action. The boy sounds like he needs help not a cover up. If he can't run his own house how can he run my country?
I admit I am not voting for him, but this is very serious. It sounds like he needs to spend more time at home.

Hmm...

10-to-1 they try to leave Ron Paul out of it. (Kind of like their little online game where you can select candidates to fight each other. They left Ron Paul & Huckabee out of the game. Egg on their face for that one.)

Really, I wish the media would quit trying to vote for us and just report the news.

Yeah right...what was I thinking.

That should give CNN enough time to cover Ron Paul also.
It was nice to see that CNN gave running account of his votes last night. But the folks at CNN could not bring themselves to put his name on the chart. They put Richardson's name on the chart although he got only 2%, but Ron Paul with 10%... not a chance.