Is It Over Yet?

(Editorial cartoon by Joel Pett / Lexington Herald-Leader (October 10, 2012) and featured at McClatchy DC.  Click on image to enlarge and then return.  Or not.)

I admit to growing weary of debates.  I feel like I'm six years old again, trapped in the car with my family for a long drive somewhere and all I can think to ask is "Are we there yet?" over and over again.

Last night was the Brown-Warren debate, and while I didn't watch it, I did read what my compatriots at Eschaton had to say as it unfolded.  Obviously, we're all pulling for Elizabeth Warren in her bid for the Senate, so I'm certain there was a certain amount of bias in the reportage.  I'm also certain that press accounts will be slanted the other direction and many will slip in a line about her Native American claim.

Tonight it will be Ryan and Biden going at it.  Now, I can kind of understand why a debate between the nominees for that position is appropriate.  After all, the Vice President is just "a heart-beat away" from the presidency.  But both men have been campaigning vigorously (Ryan for two jobs:  Veep and Congressman from Wisconsin) and we pretty much know where both stand on the issues.  We also know more about their (ahem) proclivities, as Pett's cartoon shows. 

Will I watch it?  No.  I don't have television and I have dial-up internet.  I'll listen to it on NPR and read the live-blogging on Eschaton and then tomorrow read the various press accounts. 

Will it make a difference in how I vote?  Nope.  Not at this point.  We're less than a month from the election and I've made up my mind.  And unless something totally unforeseen comes in the last two presidential debates (and why are they so close to the actual election date anyway?), they won't change my mind either.  I suspect most other voters, regardless of their political persuasion feel the same way.

I think what we have here is a manufactured race, one built to keep the media churning and to keep the money coming in.  Think about it:  just in reportable expenditures, the tab for the presidential race will probably come in at over $2 billion dollars.  That doesn't include some of the superPAC numbers dispersed over congressional races and the numbers from the 501(c)4 expenditures. Think about what that money could have been used for at a time when deficit reduction and tax cuts and medical costs are the topics du jour.

I grow old, I grow old.