By Tavarus Pennington

Reporter

The presidential race is tight and America is tuned in. Seventeen Republicans and five Democrats are running and it’ll go down to the wire as to who wins the primary election. Of course, everyone wants to have his or her pick for president in office come January 2017 but it just is not possible. Who is the best candidate? As of now, many Americans believe it to be Donald Trump who owns the lead in the GOP field and the state primary polls. Although at first everyone thought Trump was being a funny guy when he explained his desire to become POTUS, his words were not that of comedy. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has surprised everyone with her success in the Democratic primary. Clinton has the lead among people who have declared they are running but although Vice President Joe Biden has not declared any intentions to run for president, he is leading all candidates for president in favorability.

The July 2015 Quinnipiac poll that was released August 27 suggests that Biden would trump Trump and Clinton in a final presidential election at this point.

If Biden were to decide he did not want to run, Clinton would beat Trump with 45 percent favorability to Trump’s 41 percent.

All of that aside, no one knows who is going to win the presidential election in November 2016, and students at South are just as split as America as a whole.

Adam Ryan has monitored the ongoing presidential election closely.

“Clinton is corrupt and bad, she should be prosecuted for her crimes,” Ryan said.

Ryan is not alone in his negative beliefs of Clinton. According to the Quinnipiac poll, 51 percent of America has an unfavorable view of Clinton.

But on a totally different spectrum, Matthew Willis, a strong Libertarian like Ryan, said, “Clinton has a good shot to win it because the scandal doesn’t matter, she has always stayed strong.”

Although Ryan and Willis disagree on Hillary Clinton, their ideals are in-line. They both said the first thing the new president should do is address the budget. Willis said,” The new president needs to audit the Federal Reserve”. Or in other words, make the happenings inside the Federal Reserve public.

Ryan has said, “Balancing the budget is what needs to happen when the new president gets in.”

Who is the right president for the Unites States of America?

Ryan believes that person is Scott Walker.

“If I were eligible, I would have to vote for Scott Walker. I oppose some of his social and foreign policy positions, but he has expressed enough interest in federalism to make me believe that he would not abuse his power as president. Secondly, Governor Walker has easily the best record of all the republican presidential candidates, and did not come from Washington, unlike Hillary Clinton,” Ryan said.

Willis, though, thinks of the person that should be elected in a broader aspect.

“Someone who wants to viciously attack the national debt” Willis said.

Someone who says he is willing to “viciously attack the national debt” is Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic presidential candidate.

Sanders wants to, “break up too-big-to-fail financial institutions” according to Sanders official platforms. If elected, he wants to introduce the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act.” That bill would bar institutions that are too big from, “accessing the Federal Reserve’s discount facilities or using insured deposits for risky activities.”

Currently he is second in the Democratic primary race 25.5 percentage points behind Clinton at 49.3 percent according to a Real Clear Politics Poll.

Carter Woods believes in what Sanders is preaching, “I think Sanders should win because he will be a great leader for this country,” Woods said.

Ben Carson has also turned a lot of heads. According to Real Clear Politics Poll, he is second in the Republican primary race 14.3 percentage points behind Trump who is at 27.8 percent. He has been on a pretty big run since the beginning of August.

Spanish teacher Heath Creek is all for Carson. “Carson wants to serve,” Creek said. He believes Carson will be able to fix what is wrong with America.

The disparity between student’s opinions of presidents symbolizes the disparity of opinions between Americans.