Election 2012: Debate Stupidity

Soooo... the first debate.  I watched.  I watched the whole thing. I talked on the phone a little but I watched.  I thought Obama looked like a President and did a pretty weak job getting after Romney.  I thought Romney looked pretentious and unlikable but very competent and certainly "Presidential", whatever the hell that means.  I don't like the debates and I watch them skeptically as if it is kabuki theater.  I think intelligent people should read the news as it comes out from different sources.  Read editorials by the thinkers on both sides of the debate and try and decide which of these two deeply flawed, but brilliant men might best lead us through the next four years of pain.  Jim Leher the moderator did a fine job and was probably too nice to Obama which did make Obama seem weaker.  Still, it was not a disaster.

Until it was over.  And I flipped around with the remote.  And I found that the mainstream media, accross the board call the President a loser, a resounding loser and the drum beat got louder and louder.  It was a disaster for the President.  It was a beating!  It was carnage never seen before on Television.  Romney was Mike Tyson stomping in and beating the crap out of whimpering, simpering, frightened Obama.  The race...OVER!

This followed three weeks of Romney on the run.  47%.  A stupid convention and belated release of Tax returns where he paid more than he owed (something he thought a Presidential person would not do) and he was slipping.  But not anymore.  The media needs a horse race and he could win.  We are 51-49 country.  It looks like the swing States are for Obama but even those States it is close.  With the media coverage every gaffe is magnified and whether it is MSNBC or FO or all the cattle in between the news makes itself.

I am ambivalent about who wins.  I will likely vote for the President.  I think he took a world, not a country that had already fallen off the cliff and thrashed around with it and we did not die.  I suspect that we likely needed to die.  I suspect that we need a global depression to bottom out and clear the dead wood and really rebuild.  But no one wants the pain, least of all me.  So we keep kicking the can down the road.  Whomever wins this election has my prayers and should have yours too.  We are a divided country of know nothing, know it alls who only listen to voices that reaffirm our ideas and no one is willing to say the hard truths which i think are as follows:
1.   We all have too high and unsustainable a life style which we developed treading on the most bounteous natural resources on earth and then piled on some bubbles of tech and real estate and cheap money.
2.  We live in the US in an economy where 70% of it is driven by consumerism rather than production an that is not a sustainable model.
3.  We have an entitlement society that has built up over the last 200 years pushing paying the debts off till tomorrow and whether we stop today, tomorrow or not at all that debt will eventually crush us.
4.   We will all have to work harder and longer to make less and retire later, if at all.
5.   We will have national Healthcare, hopefully like Canada and the service will be adequate for most of us and not cutting edge and not as personalized and in some cases substandard to what we had before.  It will not allow that millions be spent to keep anyones 90 year old parents alive.  That will suck.
6.   Social security will pay out half of what it does now if it survives at all.

But there is a second part to that.  We are America and while i do not buy in to "American Exceptionalism" (I think God made people, people) I do believe that we are an extraordinary people and extraordinarily blessed people.  We as a people need to stop whining, stop being afraid, stop suspecting that everyone is out to take our stuff.  We need to be more charitable.  Go to church, or Mosque or Synagogue more and worship God with our brothers and sisters and for those who are not religious, those of us who are need to pray for them and lead by our example.  We need to stand up and BE the greatest country on earth and we need to do it quietly, and humbly and then when we get our own house in order we need to see what we can do to help God's people in other countries.  But there is going to be pain and suffering and disappointment in the next four years if you base your happiness on money, things and status.

There will be more debates.  In town hall meetings I would love to see people demand the truth.  What exemptions will you cut Mr. Romney.  How will I keep my house without the mortgage exemption?  President Obama, the top 1% cant pay for everything so you need to tell me how much taxes are going to go up to support health care for everyone.  How much Mr. President and how can I trust you to do it after the last 4 years?  Mr. Romney, why do you think "trickle down" works when any of the "gains" you point to from that were clearly the product of unsustainable bubbles?  President Obama, why couldn't you embrace the hard truths of Simpson Bowles?

That is the shit I want to see.  Until then it is all background news, sound bites and bullshit.  We have a right to expect more from our candidates and our media.  OK... I am done.  Sorry for the rant.  Very annoyed.  I might be off my meds.  Go Cards!