Will the diversity of the candidates for president matter to Southern voters?

With the general election almost 11 months away, the race to the White House has already heated up thanks to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee have emerged as early front-runners, but political pundits say it's still too soon to tell whose names will appear on the November ballot.

Voters across the country, however, are already considering the candidates, and Shoals residents are no different. No one, it seems, is without an opinion when it comes to who they'd like to see take the nation's top job.

This election presents some unique choices, chief among them a woman, a Mormon and a black.

Will it matter at the polls?

You bet, said Bill Stewart, political science professor emeritus from the University of Alabama.

"I don't think (Southerners) are as open as we might like to believe," he said. "Since the Civil Rights movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, blacks were able to be incorporated into a process they had so long been denied. Since then, whites have gravitated toward Republicans and the more conservative candidates, and blacks have tended toward the Democrats. Race has something to do with that."

The first test in the South will come Jan. 26 when South Carolina has its primary.

Casey Eggleston, of Florence, is hopeful that South Carolina's primary will have an outcome similar to that in Iowa. Iowa's voters chose Obama over several candidates from the Democratic party.

"I know I'd like to see Obama get the nomination, and I'd vote for him," he said. "If he's not the choice, I'd vote for Hillary (Clinton)."

Experts like Stewart cite Obama's lack of experience, especially regarding foreign policy and dealing with the war in Iraq, as his biggest obstacles as the election season gets under way.

"Obama is a charismatic man, but (Clinton) has more experience and networking among blacks even than he does," he said. "She does inspire strong opinions, and I won't say she would lose because there is a trend toward the Democratic now with the Democratic Congress, but Clinton is a powerful name, and it will depend what the shape of the country is at the time of the election."

Obama is a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois. Celebrities, including famed talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, have come out in support of his campaign. Eggleston said those endorsements have the potential to make a difference among voters in the coming months.

"You have to see what kind of effect (Oprah) will have," he said. "Some people will vote for Obama because Oprah likes him."

John and Shirley Jackson traveled to Iowa during the holiday season to visit their daughter, but they also got a taste of election fever while there. The couple attended several of the candidates' gatherings to get a better idea of the issues and where they stand before choosing the person they feel is best for the job of president.

"Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person running for president," John Jackson said. "It's hard to say if Southerners would identify with her. When she comes here to campaign, people will see she's warm and gracious, and she's extremely intelligent."

Clinton would be no stranger to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. She spent eight years there as first lady to former President Bill Clinton. During her tenure, she raised the ire of some conservatives in Congress as a result of her universal health-care initiatives.

"I liked her ideas then," said Marteal Rowell, of Florence. "But, maybe, it was just too much, too fast. Now, the nation is ready to hear that and listen to what she has to say. I know I am."

Even with universal health care as part of her platform, Clinton has other issues that will be too divisive for most voters, said David Collum, of Florence.

"Her stand on guns and the military will keep her from my vote," he said.

Clinton is opposed to the war in Iraq, and she has advocated not watering down gun control legislation as well as limiting access to weapons.

Still others in the presidential candidate pool are divisive for other reasons. Republican candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, came in second to Mike Huckabee,

Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas, and Stewart said he's too conservative to win the nation for the Republicans. Huckabee is also an ordained Southern Baptist preacher.

"He may carry the South, but he would be less popular elsewhere, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York," he said. "If the Republicans want to win, they need someone with a national appeal, not just someone who will appeal to conservative Christians."

Some of Romney's detractors have tried making his Mormonism a negative factor, but some local residents say that doesn't make a difference to them but his stand on issues does.

"His being a Mormon doesn't matter to me," Collum said. "He's a flip-flopper. He's a pretty boy with aspirations and money. He'll take a stand on one thing in this state and the opposite stand in another state and think no one will notice."

The shape of the nation at the time of the election will make the most difference in the outcome, regardless of regional voting trends, Stewart said.

"If we're still engaged in this war on terror, then people might feel John McCain is the man for the job and we might resort to those sexual stereotypes," he said. "If, on the other hand, things are placid and we're focused on health care and education, Hillary Clinton might have a chance."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@timesdaily.com.