Stop The Madness

We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate.
~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard~

Oh my God, I'll be so glad when the campaign commercials finally stop!  They wouldn't bother me so much, I think, if the things they "quote" weren't taken out of context or misconstrued to mean something the speaker wasn't saying.  I mean, seriously, who among us hasn't misspoken a few times in our lives?

"You didn't build that".  "Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax and are dependent on the government". "The private sector is doing fine". And now we have this: "Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed...We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines".  If I hear one more time that the Marines and Army still use bayonets, I'll scream.  Point made. Move on. (By the way, I watched the debates and when Obama made the comment about the 'underwater ships', I knew he was talking about submarines. It never occurred to me that it might be a 'gaffe'; rather, I thought it was a condescending remark meant to make Romney look stupid.)

We expect our politicians to be perfect and make no mistakes in what they say or how they say it.  We expect them to say what they mean, mean what they say and never misspeak or say something that isn't exactly right.  When they do, the media jumps all over it as though the 'gaffe' is a true picture of who the candidate is and what he stands for.  Like puppets, we follow what the media says and repeat it over and over again to anyone who will listen.

Americans need to learn to use common sense when politicians are running for office.  Instead of jumping on the gaffe bandwagon when the candidate they oppose says something stupid (and, Lord, don't they all at times!) why not put it in perspective and concentrate on what's REALLY important?  Where do the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you?

I don't care that Obama said he campaigned in "57 states".  I consider myself pretty smart but I once told someone that our current flag had 48 stars.  Of course I know our flag has 50 stars just as I'm sure Obama knows we only have 50 states.  I misspoke.  I would hate for someone to take my gaffe as an indicator of my ability to be a leader.  I can tell you one thing for sure - my vote will not be based on who made the fewest gaffes or said something less stupid than what the other guy said.  My vote will be based on which candidate I feel will do the better job in leading our great nation.

The best quote I heard today was from Dean Obeidallah.  He said "the American public is smarter than most political campaigns give us credit for. We may not be geniuses -- me included -- but we intuitively grasp when a politician has merely slipped up or when he or she has revealed something much more significant."  I think he's right.