Over the last couple days, Madison has been home to some of the top campaigns for the 2008 presidential election. I’ve had the opportunity to cover each of them for dane101.

Here are my personal thoughts on each candidate, with a link to my article on Dane.

Barack Obama. I decided to fight my way to see him with friends rather than take a press pass for his speech. Apparently about 18,000 other people had the same idea. The entire experience was a bit surreal, like Elvis coming back from the dead to give a performance. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in his speech. He came off as charismatic and intelligent, but I guess after all the hype I just expected more.

Mike Huckabee. A small intimate crowd made this rally fun. Great speaker and storyteller. If he ever decided to be a minister at a local church, I would start attending in a heartbeat. If you completely ignore his political views, he is probably my favorite candidate. However, with him running for president, that’s a bit of a problem.

Bill Clinton. Doing the dirty work for his wife (and I do mean dirty, as his speech was held in a barn with the smell of manure lingering in the air), Billy Bob made his way to town. About 10 minutes into his hour-long speech I made up my mind – he was my candidate for 2008. One small problem…

Bill has to be one of the most charismatic and best public speakers on the earth today. He has the seamless ability to weave important statistics in with personal stories throughout his talk. You ride a roller coaster when you attend a Bill Clinton speech, and once you’re done, you’re ready to hop right back on. Another just great storyteller.

I know the high of being a journalist will leave again next week once the candidates move on to the next states, but at least this week has been a blast.