Like many of you, I suspect, I have grown weary of the political season we are in. The incessant sniping and nitpicking over relatively trivial issues for the purpose of diminishing the other guy has caused my enthusiasm for this contest to sag. I don't care that Sarah Palin has a tanning bed in her governor's mansion. Neither do I care what Barack Obama eats for a snack.
Of course, there are issues I do care about, but it seems that it is becoming increasingly rare to get any substantive coverage on these matters from the media. I have had all I can take of the tabloid mentality of this campaign. It has left me agitated and annoyed with the whole process. Both camps have conspired with the media to contribute to this silliness. There are matters of extreme importance on the line and most of what we're getting from the respective campaigns is an unending game of "gotcha". Each camp has highly paid consultants whose job is to do nothing more than cherry pick out of context remarks and unguarded moments of the opposing candidate they can spin to the media or throw up on a political add so we all can be reminded what a terrible person the other guy is. It is utter nonsense and an insult to any voter who longs for thoughtful dialogue and intelligent debate.
Personal attacks on the opposition are at an all time high while real solutions offered are at an all time low. We could save millions of dollars and lots of time if we simply put the candidates face to face sticking their tongues out at each other and declared whichever one blinked first to be the winner.
So far, I think Simon and Garfunkel offered the most astute commentary on the current political process when they wrote "Mrs. Robinson" 40 years ago:
Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon.
Going to the candidate's debate.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.
That pretty much summarizes how I'm feeling about the Republican and Democrat campaigns this year.
