Don't Bother With #3

Tonight should sound the death knell for these contrived televised Presidential "debates". Was it a pointless exercise or what? Both teams have so thoroughly coached their players in how to avoid creating a candidacy-killing debate moment that there's nothing left for them to say. Repeat the same talking points, the half-truths, the semi-lies, say something good about yourself we all already know, and get the hell out without doing any unscripted damage. Gag. What the hell kind of way is this to choose the leader of the free world?

Do you ever feel like you fell through a wormhole and came out in an alternate universe where things are just sort of different and wrong? How else to explain this so-called choice? They're both good men, but one's a has-been and the other a not-yet and neither has an ounce of genuine charisma. Oh, don't start the Obama chant. He never did anything for me. I admire him but he's just another guy with talent and ambition. His opponent, much the same only a few election cycles late. Where the hell was John in 1996?

Well, one thing we can do is forget choosing based on their economic plans. Nobody knows what the hell to do. All they can argue about is in just what way to lower taxes. It seems that in economics as well as in foreign policy the Democrats have shifted right to a greater degree than the Republicans have shifted left, though the Repubs have borrowed a few Dem plays such as leaning more towards universal health care and gay rights than we would have thought possible. Well, it's what the people want, more or less.

Now I can't even remember what they talked about. Oh yeah, John McCain looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes and saw three letters. I keep wondering how many voters these days have any idea what those three letters mean. Wouldn't you have to be over thirty five to even remember the KGB? Much less care? He may as well have reminisced about staring down Huns in their long coats and Pickelhauben.

Tom Brokaw is a cranky old geezer.