"Not So Much"

The weather report for Tuesday evening in Nashville: "Hot Air Blankets City." Perhaps is was merely coincidental that the oppressive zephyrs occurred simultaneously with the occurrence of the second presidential candidate's debates, but, based on what transpired, it was the principle contributing factor. The location was different, as was the format, but the content couldn't have been more predictable...boring...and disheartening.

Radio commentator Glenn Beck the following morning summed up my feelings after he wadded through the alleged debate, "The country is going to hell, we just need to determine the size of the hand basket." Apparently neither McCain nor Obama have fully come to grips with this dire prediction, as both continue to be locked into a war of valueless accusations against one another instead of a determined discussion of ideologies that embrace real means and methods of confronting the myriad of problems that currently plague our nation. One of these candidates is going to walk off in November with the White House as first prize while the rest of America is stuck with the leftovers.

I fully realize that there are dozens if not hundred's of blogs on the Internet that devote their daily offerings to the current political landscape. Although I am quite concerned about the immediate and long range future of our country and thus must pay attention to the two candidates who currently vie for the awesome responsibility of shaping that future, I also understand the grinding election fatigue that has permeated every nook and cranny of our physic for over two years. If you are like me, you just want to throw your hands up and shout, "Enough!! Quit your petty partisan bickering, one of you get a backbone and demonstrate some real measurable leadership!" Constantly flinging open the closet door of one's opponent to rattle the skeletal bones within has long ago worn threadbare with the American people. We are sick of hearing how each candidate has failed repeatedly to answer the call to leadership. Such rehashing of alleged past failures only serves to emphasize what we suspect is actually true: neither candidate, at bottom, is really the best, most qualified individual for the job of being President. Their unrelenting bickering continually reduces both to the unenviable status of picking between the lesser of the two evils...read "bad choices."

What the people of America most longs for is a individual with uncompromising integrity, a person who has a burning and unrelenting passion to rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people so that their enterprise shall be rewarded - not penalized, a person who has a clearly articulated vision on how to reunite this nation into embracing once again the firm belief that the strength and longevity of this nation lies not with its indecisive and over-regulating government, but with its people. and a person who truly understands that he and the government he administers are to be the servants to the people who have come to be increasingly frustrated with the discovery that they have very little voice and, therefore, power to influence the day-to-day decisions that effect every nuance of their daily lives. We are at a cross roads in America and sadly the two individuals who shall elect which path to travel seem to have no sense of direction.

There is one more debate yet remaining, if one adopts the notion that mudslinging meets the definition of a true debate. I anticipate no meaningful and worthwhile deviation form what has occurred in the previous two. Therefore, I am stocking up on no-doze medication to keep me awake throughout that anticipated ordeal and a dull butter knife to slash my wrists in case I don't fall asleep. It is a sad commentary on the state of the quality of leadership that the best this country can put forth as presidential stock are two individuals that have more character flaws to disqualify them than appealing qualities to recommend either. Indeed...just how large will the hand basket be that carries us to the depths of Hades?