A presidential guess

As 4 November gets closer, the American people are going to have to make up their minds. Who will they choose to be the next president of the US? Your guess is as good as mine.

According to the shock-radio star Howard Stern, some of the voters have already decided who they will vote for, even though they actually have no idea what the candidates really stand for. Stern sent out a reporter to Harlem, New York. He found some black voters who said they were planning to vote for Barack Obama. He then asked them why they liked his policies.

Only instead of talking about Obama's policies, he spoke about McCain's policies and pretended that they were Obama's.

Even when the reporter asked them if they liked Obama because they agreed with his pro-life policies or because he wanted to keep the troops in Iraq and finish the war, policies that are clearly McCain's, the interviewees said they supported him for both. Stern claims that this shows that black voters are racist. They are just voting for Obama because he's black.

I disagree. I think it's very easy to go out on the streets and find people who don't know what they really should know. Jay Leno does it all the time for comedy effect on the Tonight show. He just asks questions like "where were the first Olympics held" and gets the answer "the US".

I can imagine that a lot of people do not have time to study the policies of each candidate. Many voters may decide by going with their gut feeling on 4 November. Which is why your guess is still as good as mine.

On the other hand, there are plenty of informed voters out there who will find out more about the candidates, by using the web in particular, via independent blogs and campaign websites, deciding for themselves what's true and what's spin.

Could the reporter have caught you out with his questions? Or are you informed? Take our short test and find out if you know more about the US presidential elections than some Americans.

Deborah Capras