Before going to the polls on “Super Tuesday” — February 5, 2008 — you may want to know the candidates stack up on three areas: oil industry contributions, MySpace pages and music videos. Comparing the leading candidates in both the Republican and Democratic parties is one way to make a more informed decision.

If you want to compare the candidates on specific issues and policies, glassbooth.org offers one of the most unbiased tools around. You can even take a quiz to see which candidates most closely match your views.

How much money from the oil industry did each candidate take?
This question has been hard to answer until now. Contributions from the oil industry, according to some politicos is one gauge of corruption–meaning if Big Oil owns the candidate, the chances are that the people don’t.

Oil Change International has made a simple interactive tool available for free to see how much money each candidate, including those in the current presidential race, has accepted from Big Oil.

Overall, Rudy Giuliani had the greasiest campaign with $568,708. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney came second to Giuliani and accepted $345,383 from the oil industry. John McCain comes in third among Republicans with $206,935.

Among the Democrats, Hilary Clinton is the big oil money grabber with $235,350–just slightly more than McCain. Bill Richardson, who is no longer in the race came in second among the Democrats with $154,650. Barack Obama comes in a distant third with $110,412. Of the leading candidates on either side, Obama accepted the least oil money.

Catherine Brahic wrote an informative article on oily candidates in a recent edition of the New Scientist magazine.

Who has the best MySpace page?
In the world of Web 2.0, where social networks rule, not having a campaign page on the most popular social networks would be a great faux pas. More specifically, younger voters may not know who the candidates are without them. So how do the candidates compare when it comes to social network saavy? Here are my impressions:

1. Obama – Lots of interactive features, including a link to demand he visit your hometown, which I did. Cool text messaging option. But the white suit photo is not one of his best.
2. McCain – The fact that he’s over 70 and gets the importance of a MySpace page means that he listens to his advisors and scores some coolness kudos. The layout is clean and corporate, but it’s super easy to read and includes his favorite movie and books. Nice photo.
3. Romney – Wow, he has a lot of kids! But how friendly that they’re on his page. And he looks hot in a ski parka.
4. Clinton – Cute picture of Hillary, even if it does look like she has to pee. And thanks for being honest about your age.

Who has the best music video?
This is a crucial test of a presidential candidate that may be the deciding factor on Super Tuesday. Here are links to the four leading candidates’ videos ranked in my order of favorites:

1. Clinton
2. Obama
3. Romney
4. McCain (no music videos, but a lot of tv ads)

Hope this is helpful. Please let me know if it was. For more information about Hawaii’s presidential primary see my entry entitled “Do Hawaii Voters Count in the Presidential Primary” on this site.

Good luck! And remember to vote early, but not often.