With the Iowa caucuses tomorrow, and the New Hampshire
primaries next week, I want to provide an overview of the Republican
presidential candidates. I’ve already

Democratic Senator Barack Obama's 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," is a story about his dogged optimism in the future. But it's his other work of writing—this one in response to a Humane Society Legislative Fund questionnaire—that has given dogs and other animals hope in this country. 

When animal advocates survey the field of presidential candidates, there is a lot of parity among those who have served in Congress. Joe Biden, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, and Barack Obama have all been supporters of animal welfare. But when you look at the three candidates who have served as governors, only one chief executive has advanced the cause of animal welfare in his home state in a meaningful way. 

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is on fire.  He broke records last week for raising more than $6 million online in a 24-hour period.  What was once a fringe campaign is now hiring more staff and opening more offices.  I suspect that some animal advocates have gravitated toward Paul because of his anti-war, populist rhetoric.

Former Democratic Senator John Edwards has found himself in the center of the debate over factory farming.  When Edwards first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1998, he defeated Republican incumbent Lauch Faircloth, who had been a large-scale, commercial hog farmer and operated in the second-largest hog-producing state.  Now, Edwards is spending much of his time in the number one hog-producing state, Iowa, and is running on a platform of protecting small farmers and rural communities from the environmental pollution and economic devastation caused by agribusiness.