Presidential Debates = Waste of Time

I know the recent CNN Democratic debate in Charleston (powered by YouTube) is all the buzz lately and I’ll openly admit I’m “politically challenged”, but what are we gaining from all this? Can we really gauge an individual’s mettle based on what is portrayed in a televised debate? And I’m sure you’ve already guessed it, they’re starting to come out swinging. Hillary says Obama is a political lightweight, Barrack says Clinton stupidly supported a war we should have never started.

What have we learned? Nothing, save that people (by in large) are human. And humans tend to screw up… often. I’m guessing that from here on out we’ll be hearing a lot more about how the other guy (or gal) sucks than how wonderful the speaker is (or should be). As usual none of the candidates have any critical depth in their platform, because honestly if they did, the other buzzards would pick away at it until there was nothing left.

And we buy into all this, because somehow we’re supposed to believe that these potential presidents will magically change our lives for the better and the other candidates will only lead us to ruin. The media only helps oil the political machine because… hey they need a story. The ironic thing is that by the time all is said and done, the two finalists, be it Hillary, Barrack, Rudy or even Cap’n Crunch will more likely than not, be nearly identical to the person they’re running against, because nobody wants to alienate any potential votes.

But they’ll all jump on the chance to expose the competition’s mistakes. Some are warranted, some are just plain stupid, but who has time to sort it all out? Maybe we should vote based on who openly admits to screwing up the most, or maybe we should pick our leaders by drawing straws or maybe rolling dice. Until we start training republican and democratic candidates in some kind of Shoalin Kung Fu Temple beginning at birth (even then you just never know), we’re just guessing and hoping we’re putting the right person in charge at best.

It appears that as of today, just like in the past, we have no (good) choice yet again.