Presidential primaries providing pundits with points to ponder
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
We're just days away from "Super Duper Tuesday" when 22 states hold presidential primary elections in a year when there are still no clearcut favorites for both the Democratic and Republican nominations.

With that in mind, we are all aware that there is so much information to peruse when it comes to the candidates from both sides of the aisle.

In an effort to make your life a little bit easier, I've searched through many a newspaper, listened to plenty of talk radio and visited countless Web sites, collecting various news nuggets and factual tidbits that hopefully you can use to help solidify who you believe should be our country's next commander-in-chief.

Here are some talking points, a few random thoughts and a couple of items of interest as we head toward crunch time:

Can't help but start off with a personal thought to say how surprised I was to hear that only a couple hundred people showed up for Bill Clinton's appearance in downtown Buffalo a couple of weekends ago.

Sure, the event followed a fancy fundraiser for his wife held earlier in the day and took place late on a frigid Sunday night right smack dab in the middle of the Packers-Giants NFC Championship football game, but I don't think I am the only one shocked that only 200 Democrats showed up at a free event featuring a former president.

Gotta love the corporate media. The deep-pocketed folks from about a half dozen big businesses are really the ones who decide who are the "favorites" to win the nominations. They have the power, influence and money to identify and therefore label who they think are "electable" by repeatedly banging us over the head with who they view as the top dogs while at the same time telling voters who are the "underdogs" that have virtually no chance of winning.

You see it on cable television with networks such as CNN, MSNBC and FoxNews, and you read it in newspapers such as USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. We are told to pay attention only to those deemed to be the most "electable" and ignore the minor candidates. It's almost as though they want the election to be over before it really begins.

Let's not forget the most important part of any election and the real reason why most winning candidates were able to get elected: he or she had the most money. That's just the way it works in our country in this day and age.

If you have money you have the ability to advertise. And if you have the ability to advertise, you're golden when it comes to reaching the masses through the magic of television. The facts don't lie. Approximately 95 percent of congressional elections and around 85 percent of Senate elections since 1960 have resulted in the top fundraising candidate winning, thanks to the power of the boob tube.

I can't write a column like this and not mention Ron Paul and his "Hope for America" campaign.

The Republican promising to serve our nation "for peace and liberty" has an impressive resume when it comes to his voting record on the Patriot Act and the Iraq war (he voted against both) as well as saying no to any proposal to raise congressional pay or increase our taxes, and he's also dead against anything that he believes violates the Constitution.

But the really interesting little tidbit I found out about the congressman from Texas has to do with his work as a flight surgeon for the Air Force and the fact that he has delivered more than 4,000 babies. There's a joke there somewhere. I'll let you fill in the blank with that one.

We spoke of money before, so for those keeping score at home, at last glance it was estimated that Hillary Clinton has about $92 million in the bank while Barack Obama has approximately $83 million in his campaign coffers.

I first heard about the Federal Communications Act of 1934 during a class I took at college, so when I recently heard a reference to it my ears perked up since it had been about a decade since

saw, read or heard anything about it.

But a judge from Nevada did make a ruling that NBC violated that piece of legislation by excluding Dennis Kucinich from a televised debate earlier this month. The judge's decision, which came hours before the debate was about to begin, was easily sidestepped by NBC's higher-ups when they broadcast the debate on MSNBC and pulled it from the local station based in Nevada. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.