How do you pick a presidential candidate in the primaries? I used to think it was a process of examining what your values were and then aligning them with the candidates. Unfortunately it is hard to determine exactly what a candidate's own value system is in this current process, where most issue positions are determined by a 15 second sound bite.

I guess the next step is to research the position papers of each candidate found on their websites, but honestly some of their past decisions don't exactly match up with their policy positions. It appears that local, state, and congressional politics allow a candidate to hold and govern by one value system, while the presidential requires a different set of values. What or who is the candidate?

The next step is the presidential primary debates, where candidates can express their "current" policy positions and explain how they have developed concerning real issues (flip flopping). Each candidate can clearly differentiate themselves from the other by attacking one another over personas instead of issues, which further muddies the water.

Maybe I am naive, but I always thought it was a simple process of matching one value system up against the other. I guess it is easier to be a stampede voter, rushing heedlessly to the candidate of the moment!

We're supposed to be educated college students. We can do better than that, can't we?