Two Candidates Jump Out of an Airplane...

  The first debate has come and gone and, unsurprisingly, the Republicans are claiming victory.  I can't say I blame them. If the measure of victory is indeed the strength of conviction exhibited by the candidates, then I have to give the win to Romney. The Governor clearly believes his own rhetoric, at least for as long as it takes for the words to come out of his mouth and land in the ears of all the people who were already going to vote for him anyway. 

  The President, by contrast, seemed to treat the debate like the formality it is, and didn't bother too much with trying to point out all the holes in Romney's exhortations.  The truth is, it doesn't make a bit of difference either way.  At this stage in the campaign, if you don't know who you want to vote for, then this writer humbly suggests you stay home on Election Day.  You're clearly a dithering, indecisive moron and you have no place in a voting booth.  Decisions like this are clearly beyond your intellectual capacity and you lack the understanding needed to make informed choices about things as important as who will run our government for the next four years.

  For my own part, I have decided neither of the major party candidates are qualified for the job, and I cannot in good conscience vote for them.  Despite having voted for President Obama in 2008, I am extremely unhappy with the job he has done as President, and can no longer support him with my vote. Instead I will either vote for Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party (if he is on the ballot in Indiana) or I will leave the boxes for President and Vice President blank and vote only for the Congressional, state, and local offices...unless I can request a write-in ballot. 

  The reasons for my disillusionment with the major party candidates were clearly illustrated during the first debate.  The two candidates represented the flaws of their parties perfectly. It was like they were hosting a clinic on inept political jousting.  Mitt Romney ignored the rules of the debate throughout the hour by interrupting, changing the subject, and stepping on moderator Jim Lehrer's every procedural pronouncement as if they made no difference, just like Republicans routinely ignore the will of the electorate and the plight of the people. Romney also cheated by sneaking notes onto his podium despite the rule against them. This was caught on video, but I have heard nothing about it in the "liberal" media.

  The President's performance was every bit as disappointing to me as his entire term in office has been, and for many of the same reasons.  He stood by idly as Romney ignored the rules and cheated.  The President made no attempt to call Romney out on any of the countless lies the Governor told that night. Opportunity after opportunity to show up what a flip-flopping, lying con-man Romney is came up and passed without the President doing his job and pointing those things out to the American people. Much in the same way he failed to adequately inform the American people about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (which he now claims to prefer to call Obamacare like the disrespectful opponents of everything it represents). Cowardly, craven ass-hattery, I say! If the President had made even a token effort to fight back, it may have edged me towards voting for him again.  I doubt it, but it might have.  I would have to overcome my anger that the President broke his promise to end the war in Afghanistan.

  Ultimately, this debate was a joke and the ones that follow will be jokes too, and they won't be any funnier than this one.  Speaking of jokes, what do you call it when Mitt Romney and President Obama are tossed out of an airplane at 15,000 feet with no parachutes? A really good start.

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