One of the things I've always liked about the New Hampshire Primary is that it is pretty easy to get on the ballot. Pretty much, all you have to do is file your application and send in a check for $1000. Maybe I'll run for President some day.

Of course, being on the ballot doesn't mean you'll get any votes, or an press coverage, as many of the candidates are finding. The candidate list from the New Hampshire Secretary of State office lists thirty different candidates.

We've all heard the big names on the ballot, people like Romney, Perry and Gingrich, all of which seem to be just more of the old little government, except for when it benefits their corporate cronies, Republicans. Then there's the Bachmann, Santorum social conservative crazies. Cain is still on the ballot.

Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman are probably the two mainstream Republican candidates that I can take at all seriously. I don't agree with Paul on a lot of issues, but I mostly respect him. The little I've heard about Huntsman is good, but I haven't really studied where he is on the issues.

Yet this leaves a lot of other candidates worth looking at. Fred Karger talks about supporting LBGT rights, the right of a woman to choose her reproductive health, legalizing and taxing marijuana, and lowering the voting age. He's a fiscal conservative who believes in energy independence and a path to citizenship for immigrants already in the country. While I don't agree with him on all issues, he sounds like that extinct breed of mainstream Republicans.

Another Republican candidate on the ballot is Andy Martin. He lists himself as a 'corruption fighter' from Illinois. He strongly supports the Second Amendment, strongly opposes Cap and Trade, etc. Doesn't seem to be much of substance there.

Prior to reading through the list from the Secretary of State's office, the lesser known Republican candidate that I was most interested in was Buddy Roemer. Somehow, I ended up on his press list. Probably his press list includes anyone who will write something about him online, because, he's getting no coverage, even though, I think he may be one of the more respectable Republican candidates. His lead issue is fighting special interests, and he's doing a good job on that issue. He calls for a balanced budget and supports reforming health care but says "Healthcare reform under President Obama fell victim to special interests". Like with other Republican candidates, I'm likely to have major disagreements with them, and I suspect this is the case with Roemer as well, but he's well worth looking at.

Then, there's Vern Wuensche. He ran back in 2008, spent $36,000 and came in tenth in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Pretty much standard drastically smaller government stuff; do away with the Department of Education, eliminate the IRS, eliminate the Department of Energy, etc.

John Davis has an eagle, and image of him wielding a giant star spangled pipe wrench, and lots of conservative rhetoric. I think Stephen Colbert does a better parody of image obsessed conservatives, but I'm not sure that Davis is intending his site to be a parody.

Yeah, there's lots more, and I might get around to writing about more of the candidates later. Who knows, maybe I'll even take a crack at some of the other Democratic candidates; yeah, there's several….