Presidential Debate 3.0

I have elected not to blog the debate tonight. First of all, I am beginning to suffer political burnout in connection with this year's election. Secondly, the candidates are really just repeating the positions they previously stated in the prior debates. There was some good stuff tonight like McCain trying to distance himself from Bush two debates too late, and Obama explaining his prior political affiliations to the American public. But to be honest, I'm just not in the mood. So instead of blogging tonight's debate, I thought I'd post this thought along as I attempt to clear my head.

Years ago I erroneously came to the assumption that our President really cannot make that much of a difference given the current state of partisan gridlock in Congress. In fact, I became apathetic of my same old boring political routine and even stopped voting because I simply did not care anymore. After almost 8 years with George W. Bush as President I realized that I was wrong. I revised my prior assumption after realizing that while a President may not be able to make much of a positive difference in a short period of time, they can certainly can fuck things up and make things miserable for people pretty quickly. I now feel that the objective and goal of our President should be to move this country forward no matter how slow the process is. Our President should not just represent the desires of his or her party, but the common interests of all Americans that he or she is offering to partner with. While our President may not be able to accomplish miracles, our candidates should give everybody one thing during a time when things appear to be bleak and there does not seem to be too much to look forward to....an ideal of true hope, and that is what I hope for. So with that being said:

I hope that our new President will give the world hope that the United States will intervene on behalf of the weak when needed, but not play the role of a self interested interventionist by sticking our noses in other's business when it should be clear to all that our involvement is not wanted.

I hope that our new President will give minorities and the disenfranchised public hope that their voices are being heard, and I hope that America is color and class blind enough to end artificial divisions in this country when we are all pretty much the same and dealing with the same problems.

And finally, I hope that each and everyone of you finds a candidate that you personally believe will advance this country into the future without disenfranchising or dividing voters of different political persuasions, socio-economic classes, or religions; and most importantly, I hope that our political parties will offer us the chance to explore those types of candidates and give the public a chance to pursue hope and happiness, and not policies of alienation and resentment.

No, I don't think that any particular candidate can step in and fix our current economic crisis in the short term future, but our President elect can step in and offer hope and the prospect of happiness in the future, and I guess that is all that this formerly disenfranchised voter can hope for right now.

P.S. I'm sorry for my shortcomings tonight.