What? You don't know who should be the next president?

Have you made the Big Decision yet? You know, the one where you take a ballot and pick whom you want to be the next president.

OK, maybe you would like to see who the candidates are first. Fine. Be that way.

The first official candidate has officially filed to become an official money-raising organization for next year's official presidential election. That's more than 500 days from now. I know that because Scott Pelley started the presidential election countdown clock on "The Evening News With Scott Pelley." It doesn't get any more official than that.

Maybe you think you don't have to worry so much about who's running for president. I mean, 500-plus days is a long time. You might think you know whom you want to vote for, and then something will come along and change your mind. That could happen only a day or two before Election Day. In other words, your real-time campaign will only last 24 to 48 hours.

While most of the nation's -- and some of the world's -- attention will be focused on the presidential campaign, the fact is there are plenty of other important decisions to be made about candidates.

For example, we Missourians will be electing a new governor next year. That campaign has already received considerable attention, not all of it good. So here's how it works: Candidates for governor of Missouri will work their butts off to raise millions of dollars while they officially proclaim they have no personal knowledge of the attack ads aimed at their opponents. This will go on for months. Voters will tire of the political circus, mainly because it will be nearly impossible to decide which clown might make the best state leader. Then we will vote. Many of us will choose candidates we know little about except for what those crazy ads have tried to burn into our brains.

All of that takes place more than 500 days from now. Meanwhile, in just 12 days, we will be making choices about the elected leadership of our towns and school districts. We will be deciding important financial issues that will affect how local government operates over the next months and years.

In many cases, we not only know who's running for these local offices, we also know that there may be more than one good candidate in some of these contests. So we will have to sort out how to spend our votes. In our local election system, we have little currency but for our ballots.

If history is any guide, there won't be attack ads against the local candidates. That's good. Instead, we can read the candidate profiles in the Southeast Missourian. We can go to meet-the-candidate events. We can ask our friends what they know about this candidate or that candidate. When it comes right down to it, a good word from a friend is worth millions of dollars more than any attack ad.

Something else we won't likely be subjected to in local elections is the fine art of double-talk. You know what I mean. That's when candidates tell voters whatever they want to hear in hopes these same gullible voters will cast ballots for them.

We've had a sampling of that on the world stage. The prime minister of Israel demonstrated to candidates everywhere the fine art of saying whatever it takes to beat an opponent. So the apology this week to Israel's Arab voting minority for things the prime minister said during the election -- things that decent folks find repugnant -- sounded like the largesse of a winning politician whose scruples are floating in sewage.

Oh, and the Israeli prime minister's pre-election proclamation that he would never allow a Palestinian state, and his postelection proclamation that, of course, he never meant what he said, are so blatant that they need no rejoinder.

And so the elections grind on.

The good news is our votes still count, and the best bet we have for using our ballot power wisely comes on April 7, when all those important local decisions will be made. These are our towns, our school districts. You have the clout. Make the most of it.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.